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OBSCENE & HOLY MACHISMO

H Gallery at Eat Me Restaurant is very pleased to present recent works by one of Thailand’s most internationally acclaimed artists. Obscene and Holy Machismo is a showcase of two series of photographs.


Holy Machismo consists of semi-abstract black and white photographs of traditional Thai lingams: fertility symbols widely used as sacred offerings with the aim of sponsoring prosperity. Manit’s extreme close-ups of these sacred dildos alternate between sharp definition and blurriness; sometimes they are brightly lit, and sometimes appear as dark and looming. 

Obscene are Baroque nudes. These Caravaggesque charged and saturated color photographs confront the garish vulgarity of present-day Thai politics.

Both series are essentially linked by the artist’s interest in masculine (yang) vices of greed and lust.

Manit Sriwanichpoom has a long-standing career and exhibits widely, including: Centre Pompidou Paris (2010), Asia Pacific Triennial 2009, Photoquai, Paris (2007), Gwangju Biennale 2006, Venice Biennale 2003, Photo Espana (2001), Hayward Gallery UK (1999) and Bienal de Sao Paulo (1998). His solo shows include Phenomena & Prophecies at the Singapore Art Museum (2010); Lambs of God at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (2008); Bangkok in Pink at the Yokohama Museum of Art (2002) and Man in Pink at Galerie VU, Paris (2007). His works are collected by Maison Europeenne de la Photographie Paris, DG Bank Germany, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Queensland Art Gallery, Singapore Art Museum and well known private collectors. In 2002 he was picked as one of the world’s 100 most interesting emerging photographers by Phaidon Press in their book BLINK. In 2007 he was awarded the Higashikawa Overseas Photographer Prize from Japan.

 

Manit Sriwanichpoom - OBSCENE & HOLY MACHISMO
February 6 - April 30, 2017