In October the Power Institute will welcome Thanavi Chotpradit as the second “Scholar in Residence” of the Sydney Asian Art Series.
In October the Power Institute is very proud to be hosting Thanavi Chotpradit, one of Southeast Asia's leading art historians, critics and curators. Chotpradit will spend three weeks in Sydney as part of the Sydney Asian Art Series, a program run by the Power Institute in collaboration with VisAsia at the Art Gallery of NSW. While here she will meet staff and students, and deliver a public lecture at the Art Gallery of NSW on collectivity in contemporary Thai art.
Chotpradit is visiting from Silpakorn University in Bangkok, where she is a lecturer in modern and contemporary art in Thailand. As a scholar, Chotpradit has published widely on Thai art, politics and activism, and is also one of the editors of the influential, peer-reviewed journal Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia. Chotpradit also has a distinguished career as a curator, and was recently co-curator of Phantasmapolis: 2021 Asian Art Biennial at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.
Yvonne Low, lecturer in Asian Art at the University of Sydney and co-convenor with Olivier Krischer of the 2024 Sydney Asian Art Series, underscored the importance of Chotpradit's visit:
We are so excited to welcome Thanavi to Sydney. As Thailand's leading curator and critic, Thanavi's research and perspectives on art, politics and collectivism are sharp and erudite. As we grapple with the role art might play in decoding the various crises afflicting our world, Thanavi's visit is extremely timely. This is a unique opportunity for staff, students and the broader Sydney art community to engage with one of the region's leading voices.
Since its beginnings in 2017, the Power Institute's Sydney Asian Art Series has become one of Australia's leading platforms for ideas about Asian art, accruing an international reputation. The Series has to date included twenty-eight different scholars from around the world, and hosted more than fifty lectures, seminars or workshops (both online and in person). In 2023, the Series inaugurated a Scholar in Residence program with Los Angeles-based scholar Melody Rod-ari, whose generous presence left a lasting impression on staff and students. Chotpradit's visit promises to be just as impactful.
In 2024, the Series is co-convened by Olivier Krischer and Yvonne Low, and focuses on community in Asian art. To investigate this theme, the Series has presented lectures, seminars and screenings by May Adadol Ingawanij (University of Westminster), Justin Jesty (University of Washington) and Jung Joon Lee (Rhode Island School of Design), who have considered communities spanning gender, race and ideological differences, in Southeast Asian moving image practices, socially engaged art initiatives in contemporary Japan, and photography and race in postwar Korean camptowns.
Chotpradit will add to this already rich discussion by way of a public lecture to be delivered at the Art Gallery of NSW, and a more intimate seminar for students at the University. Her lecture will address the growing interest in the creative labour movement in Thailand, how it addresses precarity in the cultural sector, and the awareness of solidarity and collectivism against the confines of the state and the interests of capitalism.
"I'm thrilled to join the Sydney Asian Art Series," said Chotpradit:
The Power Institute's reputation for excellence in art and visual culture makes this fellowship an exciting opportunity. I eagerly anticipate engaging with fellow scholars, students, and artists, knowing that each interaction will deepen my understanding and contribute to the broader discourse on Asian art.
About VisAsia
The Australian Institute of Asian Culture and Visual Arts (VisAsia) was established in 1999. It works collaboratively with the Art Gallery of New South Wales to bring a diverse range of traditional and contemporary Asian art to the Australian public and the Art Gallery’s international visitors.
The 2024 Sydney Asian Art Series is convened by Olivier Krischer and Yvonne Low, and co-presented by the Power Institute and VisAsia at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Register for Public Lecture: Against Precarity
Explore the 2024 Sydney Asian Art Series
People
Thanavi Chotpradit
Thanavi Chotpradit is a lecturer of history of modern and contemporary art in Thailand at the Department of Art History, Faculty of Archaeology, Silpakorn University, Bangkok. She is an independent curator, a member of the editorial collective of a peer-review journal Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia and a co-founder of “readtherunes”, a Bangkok-based publisher. She participated in a cross-regional research program, “Ambitious Alignments: New Histories of Southeast Asian Art,” developed by the Power Institute Foundation for Art and Visual Culture, University of Sydney, Australia, and funded by the Getty Foundation’s Connecting Art Histories initiative (2015-2016). Her research on the photographs of the 6th October Massacre (1976) is funded by the National Research Council of Thailand (2019-2022). She is a co-curator of Phantasmapolis: 2021 Asian Art Biennial at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Her latest article “Shattering Glass Ceiling: Art and Activism in Thailand since 2020” is published in The Routledge Companion to Art and Activism in the Twenty-First Century, (Routledge, New York and London, 2023). Her areas of interest include modern and Thai contemporary art in relation to memory studies, war commemoration, Thai politics and archival practices.