G1 Contemporary is very pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by Denpong Wongsarot, the artist’s third solo exhibition organized by H Gallery. The Madness of Crowds reveals a maturity in the development of Denpong’s strangely iconic and always intriguing works.

The visual language of Denpong’s paintings suggest an archaic sensibility or primitive symbology. But the sophistication of his detailed surfaces counter this evocation of history to claim a unique and very modern artistic vision. Graphically rendered human figures crowd the compositions, posturing to capture the attention of the viewer and sometimes performing vulgar acts. Here bodies exist to be noticed and the features of each reflect each other. Denpong’s themes include the pressures of uniformity or conformity in modern urban life and he includes symbols of the wider world to sharply contrast with all the figures who seem to exist at the edge of their physical limits.

Other themes include personal vanity and ambition. Belonging to a distinctly avant-garde tradition in modern Thai painting, Denpong straddles history and the contemporary by exploring the significance of older languages of visual art for their current resonances. Within his densely worked surfaces and de-individualized figures, we can read an almost melancholic desire for knowledge from the past to help us escape the deadening repetitiveness of our present time.

Denpong Wongsarat is based in Bangkok. A graduate of Srinakharinwirot University, he is currently completing a Doctorate of Fine Arts at Chulalongkorn University. Denpong has exhibited extensively including a number of exhibitions in Japan. His local group exhibitions include Young Dream (2010) at Number 1 Gallery, Bangkok; Art and Social Art (2008), Pridi Banomyong Institute, Bangkok; and The 14th Exhibition of Contemporary Art by Young Artists (1997) at the Thai Bank Museum in Bangkok. Denpong won the Silpa Bhirasri Gold Medal Award in 1996 and in 2004 he was awarded an Aichi Prefectural Scholarship in Japan. He lectures in visual arts at Srinakharinwirot University.