Pinaree Sanpitak

Pinaree Sanpitak is a leading and highly respected Thai artist of her generation.

Biography of Pinaree Sanpitak

Pinaree Sanpitak was born in 1961 in Bangkok. She studied visual arts and communication design at the School of Fine Arts and Design, University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki, Japan, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1986. During her time at the university from 1981 to 1986, she was awarded the Monbusho Scholarship from the Japanese Government. In 1999, she participated in a printmaking workshop at Northern Territory University in Darwin, Australia.

In 2007, Sanpitak was honored with the Silpathorn Award for Visual Arts by the Thai Ministry of Culture.

Sanpitak's earlier exhibitions include a comprehensive overview of her work from 1995-2013 at the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation in Sydney, Australia, in 2014. She also presented "Hanging by a Thread" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2013, featuring her large-scale installation of the same title, which was later acquired by the institution. In 2012, her installation "Temporary Insanity" was exhibited at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, and subsequently at The Contemporary Austin in Austin, Texas, in 2013.

Sanpitak has also had significant solo exhibitions, including "Fragmented Bodies: The Personal and the Public" at STPI in 2019, following her residency in Singapore. 

In 2021, she launched her monograph "Pinaree Sanpitak 1985 – 2020," as part of the fifth public program of her exhibition "House Calls" at 100 Tonson Foundation in Thailand.

Pinaree Sanpitak's Art Style

Pinaree Sanpitak’s work is renowned for its profound exploration of women's experiences in Southeast Asia, infused with a distinctly feminine sensibility. Sanpitak plays a significant role in shaping Thailand's contemporary art scene with a powerful female presence. Her primary inspiration is the female body, often distilled to its most fundamental form: the human breast.

Her practice revolves around the human body and form as vessels of experience and perception. A recurring motif in her work is the female breast, which she distills into its basic form of vessel and mound, often resembling the Buddhist stupa (shrine) and offering bowl. This motif reflects her exploration of bodily forms and their symbolic meanings.

Her sensorial investigations also demonstrate a deep sensitivity to a diverse range of materials, including textiles, glass, ceramics, and metal. This informs her multifaceted approaches in collage, drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture, resulting in a remarkably varied and innovative body of work.