Specializing in Thai & Asian Contemporary Art

THE BODY YOU WANT

H Gallery is very pleased to announce an exhibition by Krit Ngamsom, a Thai artist who exhibits internationally. Typically described as whimsical and ironic, Ngamsom’s carefully crafted objects carry a strong design sensibility as he blurs perceptual distinctions between the handmade and industrially manufactured. For The Body You Want, the artist is filling out H Gallery’s main spaces with variously sized works inspired by toy robots. Central to the exhibition is a large kinetic work and the title playfully refers to futuristic mechanization and the problems and pleasures of servitude.

Toy robots are the archetypal boy toy. Ngamsom explores a sense of nostalgia for his early years’ play things, acknowledging their charm and simple mechanisms against today’s far more complex creatures of fantasy. Moreover, these older childhood accoutrements carry a utopian sense of the future that may now be all but impossible to imagine. Such hints at a darker side to Ngamsom’s concerns as an artist: escapist retreat from the contemporary world; the distinctly masculine significance of these ordered or functionalized forms; and metaphors of de-humanized labor. Ngamsom says of this series, “Our usual governing systems turns us into robots. We are controlled by laws or traditions that have been passed on, yet they are also waiting to be defied”. This dynamic between conformism and potential rebellion underlines the great impact of The Body You Want.

Krit Ngamsom is a graduate in fine art from Bangkok University and King Mongkut’s University of Technology Ladkrabaeng, where he currently teaches. His many group exhibitions include the Singapore Biennale (2013); Nuova (Arte) Povera (2012), Osage Gallery, Hong Kong; and Traces of Siamese Smile (2008), Bangkok Art and Culture Center. Solo exhibitions include Brand New (2008) at Tadu Contemporary Art, Bangkok and he was included in Thailand Eye at Saatchi Gallery in London during 2015, which will travel to Bangkok in 2016.

New Works by Krit Ngamsom
January 28 – March 31 2016