This collection of work centres around a powerful childhood memory. At around four years of age, I was playing on the balcony of a restaurant that my mum worked at. Playing happily, I suddenly slipped between a gap in the timber floor and fell into the river below. Falling from such height, I sank deep into the water. I have strong memories of sinking deeper and deeper and the water getting darker and darker, and stiller and stiller, until I hit the muddy bottom. I then remember a huge splash and seeing sparks of light spread through the water and something pulling me up by my hair. Hearing the boom of me hitting the water from the restaurant kitchen, my mum had run through the restaurant and dived off the balcony after. While elements of this memory are traumatic, I have always focused on the positive. The heroic action of my mum and the sense of being pulled from the depth. Therefore, hope, healing and new beginnings are a recurring theme in all six paintings.
Exploring this memory across these six paintings, I have expressed different elements of the memory in each painting and weaved in some Buddhist stories, ceremonies and concepts. The main idea being the four levels of the lotus used in Buddhist teachings as a symbol of the path to enlightenment. As the lotus sprouts in the mud and spends most of its life underwater before finally blooming on the surface, it is believed to symbolise the struggles we all go through in life and in the pursuit of enlightenment. Lotuses can be seen in all six paintings to represent this transformation and growth.
In this collection there are also a number of representations of me. The innocent childlike face with hair in buns, the rat, the falling figure and the monkey, each represent a different element of my life, spiritual journey and personality. I feel like there is lots more to process about this memory, which is what I called this show, Deep Water Part One.
Micro Plastic Island
In this painting I have used the story, Phra Mahajanaka Jataka, which is an epic story of family betrayal and a fight for the throne. At one point in the story, the wronged prince Phra Mahachankrot is the only survivor of a shipwreck and has to swim for seven days and seven nights. During this time he is exhausted and close to death and has many hallucinations. He is not sure what is real and what is an illusion, so when the goddess of the sea, Manimekhala appears he is not sure if she is real or not. He finally decides, real or not, she is his only hope and he follows her to safety (as seen in the top right corner).
I have linked this story to my near drowning memory and being rescued by my mum. This story has also always reminded me of the journey many refugees have had to make throughout history. With so little options, of course refugees will try anything to find safety. And yet governments punish them for not arriving via the ‘correct’ ways, instead, coming by boat only to be locked up on remote islands, such as Christmas Island. This is represented by all the small Christmas trees in the painting.
The title of the painting refers to the millions of micro plastics that end up in our oceans due to the obscene amount of plastic production, use and waste. Most people claim to love the ocean and consider it a calm and healing place, yet we fill it with rubbish and chemicals.
Overall, the painting deals with the number of small, micro problems we create for ourselves, individually and globally. Referring back to the Phra Mahajanaka Jataka story, the painting is also a reminder to hear the warnings and accept help when it is offered.
Deep Sea Monkey
The dark monkey-like figure to the right of this image is me sitting on the dark muddy river bed, confused and directionless. The angel in the boat represents both my mum coming to save me and Manimekhala, who saved prince Phra Mahachankrot. The bright yellow and splashes of blue represent the moment the water came alive when my mum jumped in the river. The flower-like images floating on the water are Khathongs (floating baskets/vessels/boats), used in the Thai Loy Krathong festival to send away your bad luck or negative thoughts.
Loy Krathong
This painting continues to use the Thai Loy Krathong festival as source of inspiration and deals with the idea of being cleansed or relieved, new beginnings and rebirth. During the Loy Krathong festival, through ceremony and prayer, people place their bad luck and negative thoughts in a Krathong and put it in a river and let the water take it away. This can also be done with lanterns as seen in lantern festivals in the north of Thailand. Both Krathong and lanterns can be seen at the top of the painting. Also at the top, is a Japanese inspired sunset, symbolic of better times ahead. In the centre is the Tree of Life where Buddha sits and attains enlightenment. The blue sitting finger is another representation of the goddess of water and before her can be seen a large lotus birthing a head of Buddha.
Pull Me Up
This painting is inspired by the moment my mum managed to grab on to my hair and pull me up from the bottom of the river. The bound rat at the top section represents the inevitable human struggle and feelings of stress, anxiety and being restricted. The lotuses on the rat represent the need for growth, the need to let go, accept the process and accept help/relief when it comes. The yellow fire breathing dragon represents our tendency to become defensive and angry when we are struggling, scaring away offered of help. The blue figures embracing is a reminder that we all need love and care and to treat yourself and others with compassion.
When you fall, I will jump
This paint focuses on acts of kindness and the instinct in us all to help someone when they are in need. When we care for someone, we act without thinking. We jump to help them.
Handful (always)
This painting is in contrast to When You Fall, I Will Jump, and how people are so busy, distracted and disconnected from each other that many don’t reach out a helping hand to those that need it. In the centre though, the angel has wings on her arms and is trying to rise above it all. Her busy thoughts are emerging from her head and floating away like clouds.
The two flowers in the centre are from my mum’s batik sarong and share colours with the angel's wings.
Though Bundit Puangthong studied both traditional and contemporary art making in his native Thailand, his emergence in contemporary Australian art happened almost as an afterthought. Having travelled to Melbourne to study English, Puangthong earned extra money as a street artist selling paintings to tourists and sketching chalk drawings on footpaths to the delight of passers-by. Trained in Thailand to paint billboards and puppet theatre backdrops, his large dioramas so impressed that complete strangers were compelled to suggest he apply to the Victorian College of Art to formalise his studies.
Over 20 years later, Puangthong is now noted for his unique aesthetic that blends traditional Thai iconography with Pop and Street Art references, as well as contemporary techniques in art making, to explore the tension and permutations of his bicultural experience. West and East, new and old, rural and urban – polarities of being that are deconstructed, abstracted, and reconstructed as modern reflections on cross-cultural life.
Initially Puangthong was wary of being too didactic in his compositions, of delving too deeply into tradition at the expense of his new life in Australia. Early paintings, though definitively inspired by Thai culture, were more tentative in their approach, featuring broad swathes of colour and lightly sketched icons that danced around the edges of his canvases. Now a more mature artist, Puangthong is revisiting his early years with renewed pride, and relishing the opportunity to share the myths and memories of his rich heritage. Bold and bright, with characters that beckon the audience into his world, Puangthong’s recent works celebrate his newfound confidence and pleasure at passing on his stories with each show.
Bundit Puangthong was born and raised in Thailand. Undertaking initial studies at the Academy of Arts, Nakorn Si Thamarat, Thailand in 1989, he was awarded a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Chiang Mai University, Thailand, in 1995; a Diploma of Visual Arts, Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT), in 2003; a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours), Australian Academy of Design, Charles Stuart University (2004); and a Master of Visual Arts, Victorian College of the Arts (2005). A finalist in the invite-only Gold Award at Rockhampton Art Gallery in 2018, he was also included in the Sunshine Coast Art Prize (2020, 2018, 2017); Paddington Art Prize (2018); Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize (2021, 2017, 2011, 2009); and the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery (2009). In 2021 he was selected to create a 20mt high mural in Rose Lane for City of Melbourne’s Flash Fwd project. His work has been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout Australia and internationally in Hong Kong and Thailand, and his work is held in public collections including Artbank, Sydney, and Rockhampton Museum of Art.
Bundit Puangthong
Born 1969, Thailand
Lives and works in Melbourne, Australia
EDUCATION
2005
Master of Visual Arts, Victorian College of the Arts
2004
Visual Arts (Honours), Australian Academy of Design, Charles Stuart University,
2003
Diploma of Visual Arts, NMIT Preston, Melbourne
1995
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
1989
Academy of Arts, Nakorn Si Thamarat, Thailand
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
'Deep Water Part One', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
2023
'One Part of The Story', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
2021
'Endless Yarn', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane`
2020
'What Water will Bring', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
2018
'The Object of Life', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
2017
'New Works', Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2016
'Reliving', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
2015
'Full Circle', Fehily Contemporary, Melbourne
2014
'Heaven Nine', Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney
'Animal Magnetism', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
2012
'Buffalo After the Rain', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
2010
'Heaven Nine', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
2009
'Boys Don’t Cry', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
'Bundit Puangthong', Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne
'The Cat Street Gallery', Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
2008
'Bundit Puangthong', Iain Dawson Gallery, Sydney
'Recent Work', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
2007
'Tales of Old Siam', 45 Downstairs, Melbourne
'Risk', Self Preservation, Melbourne
2006
'Second Step', Red Gallery, Melbourne
2005
'Under the Lotus Leaf', Artholes Gallery, Melbourne
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Spring Show, EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
2022
'Sydney Contemporary Art Fair', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
‘Expanded Canvas’ is a major exhibition at Town Hall Gallery exploring the dynamic and innovative nature of contemporary painting. The traditional grid and 2D picture plane are replaced by modern surfaces, including drop sheets, sign vinyl, virtual space, and the gallery wall itself.
Bundit’s mural painting will be exhibited in the major exhibition ‘Expanded Canvas’, showing at Hawthorn Arts Centre, Victoria - 23 April to Saturday 2 July 2022.
NGV is committed to providing creative experiences for young people and their families and sharing new ways to be creative. The gallery invited Bundit Puangthong to conduct a series of online workshops for their NGV Kids programme, during the 2021 Melbourne lockdown.
With a background in puppeteering, Bundit created a range of workshops with an introduction to making paper puppets.
The Sunshine Coast Art Prize is a dynamic visual arts award reflecting outstanding contemporary 2D arts practice in Australia. Now in its 16th year, this significant art award is the flagship event for the Sunshine Coast’s Regional Gallery in Caloundra, attracting entries from emerging and established artists across the nation.
This year Bundit Puangthong was a finalist with his work 'Riding Stars' 2021
Held every two years, the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize attracts some of Australia’s most accomplished artists, awarding a generous acquisitive cash prize of $50,000. The Prize provides Bendigo Art Gallery with the opportunity to survey contemporary painting by established and emerging artists from across Australia.
Bundit Puangthong is a finalist in the 2021 prize with his work 'The Living Room' 2021.
Flash Forward is creating a connected network of laneways across Melbourne with their own stories, visuals and acoustic designs.
Showcasing Melbourne’s creative culture and unlocking the potential of some of the city’s lesser-known laneways, more than 80 creatives have been commissioned to create over 40 art installations, 40 albums and stage 40 gigs across the city.
As part of the project Bundit was commissioned to make a large-scale work in Rose Lane.
The 2021 Geelong contemporary art prize is a signature event that assists with the development of the Geelong Gallery’s collection while fostering Australian artists and contemporary painting practice in general.
Bundit Puangthong’s work ‘Skull splitter’ takes inspiration from a famous Buddhist story where a prince’s ship sinks, and he has to swim all the way back to shore. The story represents the challenges we all face, despite our social status, and the lessons we learn from them. Image: Bundit Puangthong ‘Skull splitter’, 2020, synthetic polymer paint and spray paint.
One in three American museums have not re-opened after lockdowns in March. But art continues to be bought, lent, and displayed by private banks. Dieter Buchhart, Art Critic
A new exhibition showcases the work of five Thai-born artists now living and working in Australia, the first of its kind in Melbourne.
Curated by Vipoo Srivilasa, the show was designed to provide a platform, "for [the artists] to have a voice in Australia".
An artist who moved to Australia 22 years ago, Srivilasa says when you emigrate, your cultural identity changes.
"All of them have a very strong sense of Thai culture in their work, yet it’s not traditional. It blends with Australian culture and becomes something new, something exciting."
The exhibition features the work of Gallery artist Bundit Puangthong
Un/Thaid runs until July 27 at Grau Projekt, Level 1, 2-12 Alexandra Pde, Clifton Hill. The gallery is open Wed-Sat, from 1pm-6pm. grauprojekt.com
This exhibition brings together the work of five contemporary artists from Thailand who now live and work in Australia. Arriving in Australia independently of one another across the 1990s and 2000s, these five artists are based in the urban centres of Melbourne and Sydney and have continued their distinct individual practices since arriving in this country. The work on display in this exhibition is a diverse offering, including performance, painting, ceramics, sculpture, video and installation. Articulating multi-dimensional and layered histories, all of these artists are emboldened in their shared cultural experience of growing up in Thailand and then relocating to Australia while continuing to develop and refine their artistic practices. This exhibition features the work of Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Nakarin Aaron Jaikla, Bundit Puangthong, Pimpisa Tinpalit and Somchai Charoen. A Thai born Melbourne based artist, Vipoo Srivilasa has initiated and organised this exhibition because of his desire to provide visibility and voice for Thai Contemporary artists who have been working and living in Australia.
Now in its 15th year, the annual Paddington Art Prize is a national acquisitive award for a painting inspired by the Australian landscape – a significant contemporary genre with a long tradition in Australian painting and a key contributor to our national ethos.
The Paddington Art Prize offers $30,000 to the overall winner. Louisa Antico from Sofala Cottage will offer a selected artist a one week retreat at her historic miner’s cottage in Sofala in the beautiful Turon Valley, 40km north of Bathurst on the road to Hill End; and Defiance Gallery Directors, Campbell Robertson-Swann and Lauren Harvey will select two artists to have an exhibition with Defiance Gallery at Mary Place Gallery in Sydney. Winners of the Defiance Gallery Prize will also receive an invitation to the Nock Art Foundation Residency, Queenstown, New Zealand during 2019 including three weeks accommodation at ‘Giverny’ with studio facilities.
Designed as an invitational award, The Gold Award aims to acquire contemporary Australian painting to Rockhampton Art Gallery’s collection by means of the most outstanding work or works by an artist awarded a cash prize of $50,000 and acquired by Rockhampton Art Gallery. The Award was conceived in 2010 when the then Rockhampton Art Gallery Trust received a substantial bequest from the Estate of Moya Gold for the acquisition of Australian paintings. With industry review and guidance, the Trustees advised to expend the interest accumulated by the Gold Trust to fund a new painting award. Now in its fourth iteration The Gold Award has become a premier biennial event of national significance. Presented by Rockhampton Art Gallery, The Gold Award is a joint initiative of Rockhampton Art Gallery Philanthropy Board and Rockhampton Regional Council.
The Gold Award 2018 has been judged by Simon Elliott, Deputy Director, Collection and Exhibitions, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.
The Drawing Wall is an ongoing series of site-specific, commissioned, temporary wall-based drawings or installations enlivening the foyer-space of the Eastbank Centre, directly outside Shepparton Art Museum. This year Bundit Puangthong has been commissioned to complete a drawing across the 4 x 12 metre space as well as conducting a stencil workshop in July.
Designed to attract some of Australia’s finest contemporary artists, the inaugural Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize and exhibition was first held in 2003 at Bendigo Art Gallery.
Every two years the Gallery invites artists to submit entries for the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize. The most outstanding work as judged by the selection panel is awarded an acquisitive cash prize of $50,000.
Works from the shortlisted artists will be on display at Bendigo Art Gallery in the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize exhibition from 17 June – 20 August 2017. The 2017 winner will be announced at the exhibition’s opening on Friday 16 June 2017.
This prize provides Bendigo Art Gallery with the opportunity to survey contemporary painting by attracting many high calibre and emerging artists from around Australia.
The Sunshine Coast Art Prize is a national contemporary acquisitive award presented by Sunshine Coast Council. The Award is open to any artist who is an Australian resident, working in a 2D medium.
Forty finalists have been selected for an exhibition at the Caloundra Regional Gallery and the winning work will be added to the Sunshine Coast Art Collection.
Angela Goddard is the judge for the Sunshine Coast Prize 2017. Angela is the Director of Griffith Artworks, responsible for the Griffith University Art Collection and the Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane. Angela was previously the Curator of Australian Art at the Queensland Art Gallery I Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA). Winners announced 31 August.
Image: Bundit PuangthongWhere Is the Buddha? 2017 acrylic on linen 122 x 122 cm
Melissa Pesa thoughtfully writes about Bundit Puangthong's latest exhibition in the current edition of Art Almanac. She writes:
Puangthong’s paintings explore, in depth, the cultural differences experienced since his arrival in Australia in 2000. Utilising a range of techniques from stencils to detailed, academic brushwork and an evocative colour palette, Puangthong creates texturally layered paintings that highlight his interest in American pop and Australian street art. Captivated by Melbourne’s creative ambience, its feast of colour, ideas and energy generated from public spaces, cross-cultural similarities became apparent. Puangthong reminisces, “When I came to Melbourne and saw all the street art everywhere it reminded me of the stencil work in the temples in Thailand.” Incorporating this approach with a modern medium, Puangthong brings a fresh art style onto the canvas.
This March at the Festival of Live Art in Melbourne, Bundit Puangthong will take part in Asian Artists in Conversation. Participating artists will provide a critical overview of the Asian art landscape, and discuss the shifting boundaries and concepts of contemporary Asian art.
When: Sunday 6 March, 1pm – 5pm
Venue: FCAC Roslyn Smorgon Gallery
Cost: Free, bookings required
The Festival of Live Art is hosted by Arts House, Theatre Works and Footscray Community Arts Centre, and is current 1 – 13 March 2016. For more information, click here.
Bundit's forthcoming exhibition is from 4 - 22 October 2016.
