Thailands contemporary art encompasses some of the most diverse and versatile art in Southeast Asia. Thailand is well positioned in the global world of contemporary art with its international and liberal outlook and almost lack of censorship, which plague many countries in the region. Modern painting in the western sense started late in Thailand, with Prof Silpa Bhirasri

Silpa Bhirasri

Silpa Bhirasri , born Corrado Feroci was an Italian-born sculptor who worked mainly in Thailand. He is considered the father of modern art in Thailand and was instrumental in the founding of today's Silpakorn University....

 and the establishment of Silpakorn University

Silpakorn University

Silpakorn University is a well-known public university in Thailand. The university was founded in Bangkok in 1943 by Italian-born art professor Corrado Feroci, who took the Thai name Silpa Bhirasri when he became a Thai citizen. It is the leading Thai university in the fine arts and archaeology,...

, but Thai artist are now expressing themselves in a variety of media such as installations

Installation art

Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...

, photographs, prints

Printmaking

Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...

, video art

Video art

Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and comprises video and/or audio data. . Video art came into existence during the 1960s and 1970s, is still widely practiced and has given rise to the widespread use of video installations...

 and performance art

Performance art

In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...

.

Contemporary Thai art often combines traditional Thai elements with modern

Modern art

Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...

 techniques. Notable artists in the classical tradition include Chakrapan Posayakrit, Chalermchai Kositpipat and Tawan Dachanee.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Vasan Sitthiket, Montien Boonma and others have represented Thailand at the Venice Biennale

Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...

. Vasan Sitthiket

Vasan Sitthiket

Vasan Sitthiket , born on October 7, 1957 in Nakhon Sawan Province, Thailand is a Thai contemporary visual artist. A graduate of the College of Fine Art in Bangkok, he has works in many fields, including painting and poetry...

 is one of the few Thai contemporary artist with work represented in the Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

 (MoMA) in New York. His most recent show is called Capitalism is Dying! at Thavibu Gallery

Thavibu Gallery

Since its establishment in 1998, Thavibu Gallery in Bangkok, Thailand has been keeping abreast with the growth of contemporary art practices of Thailand, Vietnam and Burma and has since been showcasing the art that best reflects the cultural identity of these countries...

, 2009.

Chatchai Puipia exhibited at the Asia-Pacific Triennal (1996), the Shanghai Biennale (2002), the Singapore Biennale

Singapore Biennale

The Singapore Biennale is a contemporary art biennale in Singapore. The first Singapore Biennale operated as one of a lineup of Singapore 2006 events. Fumio Nanjo, Director of Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, has been reappointed Artistic Director of the Singapore Biennale 2008...

 (2006) and the exhibition Traditions/Tension Southeast Asian Art at the Asia Society in New York. Panya Vijinthanasarn is the Dean of Silpakorn’s Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Art.

Younger and up-and-coming artists include Porntaweesak Rimsakul, Yuree Kensaku, Jirapat Tatsanasomboon, Kritsana Chaikitwattana and Thaweesak Srithongdee.

Since 2003 Thailand has participated in the Venice Biennale. The Ministry of Culture leads this project, while the private sector also works to put Thailand on the art map by proposing interesting works and artists to Documenta

Documenta

documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...

, organized every 5 years in Kassel

Kassel

Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. In 2007 there were two Thai artists in Documenta, while an Asian art show was held in ZKM, Germany at the same time, in June 1987.