04/09/2020
: Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook is one of Southeast Asia’s most respected artists, and for over 30 years her video, installation, and graphic works have been shown in museums and biennials around the world, including the Venice Biennale (2005), Documenta (2012), a retrospective at the Sculpture Center, New York (2015), Asia-Pacific Triennial, Australia (1993), Traditions/Tensions: Contemporary Art in Asia, Asia Society, New York (1996); solo exhibitions at Denver Art Museum (2013), Walter Arts Gallery (2012), Bass Museum (2012).
Her fourth show with , opened on Feb 13, 2020, and opened a solo exhibition, on Mar 7.
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Born in Trad, Thailand, in 1957, Araya received fine art degrees from Silpakorn University, Bangkok,1986 and Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig,1990 & 1994. Her etchings and aquatints of the late 80s and early 90s, with ghost-like female figures in shadowy environments, set up themes of death, the body, and women’s experience that have endured throughout her career. By the early 90s this found primary focus and expression in the physicality of sculptural installations. These often fragile, ephermeral sculptures led to an examination of her relationship with “otherness," which by the late 90s, saw her bring rituals of the dead into her artistic practice, and a shift to video work, one of which is the iconic series The Class (2005).
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Video remains her primary medium. Referencing village storytelling traditions, they have a meditative quality, often centering on the idea of communication between different realms. Two highly acclaimed series are Two Planets (2008) and Village and Elsewhere (2011). Dogs have been a recurring motif in her work, and are an important part of her life; she cares for dozens of abandoned, often injured dogs in and near her home.
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Her work is in numerous museum collections, including: the Guggenheim, NY; Asia Society, NY; Smith College Museum of Art; Orange County Museum of Art; National Museum, Osaka; Singapore Art Museum; Museum Arnhem, Netherlands; and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki.
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See our website for more on her, and see comments for info on pictured works @ Tyler Rollins Fine Art
