Thai contemporary artist Somboon Hormtientong presents his latest series of abstractions and semi-abstractions in solo exhibitions across both H GALLERY Bangkok and our adjunct space G1 Contemporary at Gaysorn. 

Each abstraction at H Gallery is linked by a distinct geometric commonality. Shrouded in ethereal layers, Hormtientong's work expresses a tendency towards minimalism with a keen consideration for color as a break from stark spatial forms. Prevalent in the Elephants and Horses series at G1 Contemporary is a darkness that Hormtientong steps out of in his painterly considerations at H Gallery. Here the prime tonal elements yield from bright, cool-natured livelihoods - apparent in blue, green and sand - where color is enlivened by linear motion. A geometric sensibility evokes a strong willed deliberacy in painting style as a contrast to the swathes of disjointed strokes in Elephants and Horses. Both series meet in the viewer's ability to detect a comparable ease of pictorial fluidity.

Hormtientong offers himself as a multivalent pillar of Thai contemporary art, wherein the viewer too must offer herself to the ranges of intensity and tailored forms of minimalism that imbue his works. A one way relationship could not exist. The simplicity of his chosen forms and spatiality requires an imaginative viewer - a capacity easy to achieve given the options granted by Hormtientong's many moods. Moods that are sometimes marked by spontaneity and at others drawn back by patterned control. His work in abstraction undertakes an honest consideration of European influence without wholly masking his roots in Southeast Asia. 

Hormtientong remains one of Thailand’s masters of painting. And this ambitious showcase is testament to the significance of his evolving vision. 

H Gallery Bangkok is open daily from 10 am until 6 pm except Tuesdays. Tuesday by appointment or by chance.