Ausstellung

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Art out of Silence:
Paintings by Jiratchaya Pripwai, Ceramics by Wasinburee Supanichvorapach and Ancient Art.
"During this process, my wandering mind becomes calmer and more focused, more peaceful and relaxed, as if the art process had a therapeutic benefit that heals and restores balance in my mind."
This very personal and sensitively formulated statement by the artist Jiratchaya Pripwai, reflects the foundations of Thai art with an astonishing precision and moving humanity, from the first encounter with Buddhism in the 6th century to our time.




Jiratchaya Pripwai (*1983)
Jiratchaya Pripwai's painterly meditations produce apparently transparent textile structures floating in space in black and white. The perfection of her painting tempts us to believe that a computer program created it - and pulls us as if magically from a distance very close to the picture and into the picture. And only when we look closely do we recognize that the style of the lines comes from the hand of a living person. It takes her two to three months to complete a large canvas. Despite her youth - and probably also because of her modesty - she has been one of the stars of the contemporary art scene in Southeast Asia for years. Her works are represented in almost all of the major museums in Southeast Asia and now also in major western collections

Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch (* 1971)
Marianne Heller has already shown Thailand's leading ceramic artist in several exhibitions in Heidelberg, Weinheim and Mannheim over the past few years; internationally he has been shown in important exhibitions in Brussels, Cologne and in France, Japan, Korea and Singapore. Wasinburee completed his training in Germany: at the Technical College for Ceramics in Landshut, and at the University of Kassel. As artistic director, he is the third generation to run an important ceramic production facility in Ratchaburi, west of Bangkok. The creation of ceramics for Wasinburee begins with a meditative process which then leads to the focused creation with clay, glazes and a kiln. His intensive examination of the color combination blue-white and especially cobalt-blue brought about the high point of his artistic work so far in the years 2016 to 2021: THE KOBALT SERIES. Wasinburee created the final group of his KOBALT SERIES, which were produced in 2020 and 2021, for the exhibition that will open on September 5, 2021 in the Marianne Heller Gallery: several important large-format sculptures such as the imposing ZEE-ZEE (84 cm) and MORAI (58 cm) will be juxtaposed with an aesthetically mature selection of smaller vessels. One of the highlights of this exhibition is undoubtedly the sculptural composition NIULIFE, in which stress cracks in the cobalt blue glaze were filled using the Japanese kintsugi (gold lacquer) technique. GATE TO ETERNITY plays with our approach to conceptions of the hereafter - a passage from this world to the hereafter: a large ring, open on both sides, earthen-brown on the inside, blue and white on the outside like a summer sky.

Ancient Art
The roots can be found in the past of Thai history. As early as the middle of the first millennium of our era, Indian traders were not only bringing trade goods to Southeast Asia, but also the main religions of India, Buddhism and Hinduism. In the early trading centers, for example in the area of Takuapa on the isthmus of Thailand, small temples were quickly built and decorated with sculptures. An excellent example is the highly polished lingam from the 7th-8th centuries, made of dense sandstone: the phallic representation of the Hindu god Shiva. Such sculptures were placed and venerated inside temples. But they were often victims of political unrest and religious iconoclasms in the following generations. Smaller sculptures and everyday objects, such as the group of bronze bowls with a wonderful patina, dating into the 16th-17th centuries, document the time of the "real" Thailand: it begins in the 14th century, when the Sukhothai Kingdom was founded after a major migration from South China to Central Thailand. The previously dominant ethnic groups of the Mon and Khmer were "integrated" and Buddhism became the main religion. The fragmentary ceramic Buddha from the 16th century probably comes from Si Satchanalai near Sukhothai, an important center for the manufacture of ceramics. The sculptures and objects on display come from important Western collections, are well documented and are, if necessary, furnished with a certificate from the Art Loss Register.