Ames Yavuz (formerly Yavuz Gallery) is proud to present Heavenly Pink by Manit Sriwanichpoom, one of the most prominent artists of his generation in Southeast Asia.
Sriwanichpoom is best-known internationally for his startling photographic series featuring ‘Pink Man’, a portly man in a flashy silk tuxedo who pushes an eternally empty shopping cart. Heavenly Pink imagines the spiritual afterlife of this devoted consumer through installation, photography, painting, and the artist’s first animated video work. With an accompanying essay by celebrated Singaporean curator Tan Siuli, this exhibition continues Sriwanichpoom’s decades-long examination of Thai society’s fragmented relationship to capitalism and spirituality.
As Tan discerns in her essay, “Where earlier works often had a more direct address or stance, this new chapter is far more ambivalent in tenor. Each image introduces multiple registers (of kitsch, beauty, and satire), prompting audiences to parse the semiotics of spirituality and consumerist culture in Pink Man’s afterlife, and to consider what new narratives this reckoning might hold.”
Tan describes Heavenly Pink as “a collection of visual riddles: Pink Man’s iconic trolley hooked up to IV drips; a suspended wooden boat evocative of the vessels that carry the soul on its journey to spiritual realms; images of broken Buddha statues; and a short animation which sees a haloed Pink Man appearing in an iconic image painted by Khrua In Khong in the temple of Wat Borom Niwat, depicting a group of Westerners marveling at a giant lotus flower, a symbol of Buddhism.”
About the Artist
Manit Sriwanichpoom (b. 1961) is one of Southeast Asia’s leading artists who has made a career of icon study in the Thai context, creating an original body of work that reveals Thailand in all her contemporary socio-political complexity.
Sriwanichpoom has exhibited worldwide for over thirty years, including representing Thailand at the 50th Venice Biennale (2003). Other major curated exhibitions include the 18th edition of the Photaumnales, Beauvais, France (2021); RIFTS: Thai contemporary artistic practices in transition, 1980s–2000s, Bangkok Art And Culture Centre, Thailand (2019); Absurdity in Paradise, Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel, Germany (2018); Contemporary Ruins, KAI 10 | Arthena Foundation and KINDL – Center for Contemporary Art, Düsseldorf, Germany (2017); Thailand Eye, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2015); and Utopian Days – Freedom, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea (2014); and his mid-career survey, Phenomena & Prophecies, Singapore Art Museum (2010).
His works are in major collections worldwide, including Maison Europeenne de la Photographie (Paris), DG Bank (Germany), ABN-AMRO Bank (Netherlands), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Japan), Singapore Art Museum (Singapore), Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (Australia), and Vehbi Koç Foundation (Turkey).
In 2007, Sriwanichpoom was awarded Japan’s prestigious Higashikawa Photo Fiesta Prize, and in 2014 the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by French Ministry of Culture & Communication.