Pinaree Sanpitak

Pinaree Sanpitak (b. 1961, Thailand) is one of Asia’s most important contemporary artists. In the 1990s, her ground-breaking exhibition Breast Works marked the start of the artist’s reference to an emergent and defining iconography: the women’s breast, which Sanpitak has become renowned for.

Over the last four decades, she has explored her sense of being in the world, drawing inspiration from her experiences and the woman’s body. Engaging with the concept of the body in its many dimensions–individual, communal, spiritual–she has developed an enigmatic inventory of symbols distilling the woman’s body to its most elemental parts, expressed variously through vessels, breasts, eggs, fruits, and subtly curved profiles. Often abstracting the body into a form of a vessel, Sanpitak presents it as a container of lived experience, perception and emotion that reflect on themes of womanhood, the self and spirituality. Her sensorial inquiries also reveal a keen sensitivity towards a range of materials, and she has produced an expansive and compelling body of work across diverse media and techniques ranging from drawings, large-scale installations, sculpture and collaborative cooking projects.

Sanpitak’s works have been shown in numerous museums and biennales. Her recent exhibitions include: Dream Rooms: Environments by Women Artists 1950s-Now, M+, Hong Kong (2025); Choreographies of the Everyday, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan (2025); Making their Mark, curated by Cecilia Alemani, The Shah Garg Foundation, Berkeley Art Museum, California & New York, USA (2025-2024); Un Ciel intérieur (An Inner Sky), Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO, Paris, France (2025-2024); Ocean in Us, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan (2024); New Large Scale Artworks, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, USA (2024); Bangkok Art Biennale (2023); The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani, 59^th Venice Biennale (2022); among others.

An overview of her work from 1995 to 2025 was recently showcased in a solo exhibition, Breast Stupa Cookery and Beyond by Jim Thompson Foundation, Bangkok, Thailand (2025); and in 2014, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney, Australia presented three decades of her work in Collection +: Pinaree Sanpitak. The artist presented Hanging by a Thread at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2013), a solo exhibition featuring her large-scale installation of the same title, which was subsequently acquired by said institution. Another large-scale installation, Temporary Insanity, was exhibited at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, USA (2012) and subsequently at The Contemporary Austin in Austin, Texas, USA (2013). At the 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012) she showcased a large-scale installation, Anything Can Break, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.

She has also exhibited her works at numerous institutions such as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem (The Netherlands), National Gallery Singapore, Singapore Art Museum, ILHAM Gallery (Malaysia), Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (Australia), Museum of Modern Art Tokyo (Japan), MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum (Thailand). In 2007, she received the Silpathorn Award from the Thai Ministry of Culture, one of the top honours for artists in the country.

Sanpitak’s works are included in the collections of over 30 institutions, including: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA), MoMA, New York (USA), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (USA), The Phillips Collection (USA), Asian Art Museum San Francisco (USA), Chrysler Museum (USA), Nasher Museum of Art (USA), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Japan), Museum of Modern Art Tokyo (Japan), 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Japan), Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (Australia), Art Gallery of South Australia, Arter–Vehbi Koç Foundation (Turkey), National Gallery Singapore, Museum MACAN (Indonesia) and M+ (Hong Kong).