While virtual art exhibitions proved instrumental in connecting Thai artists to potential buyers in 2021, art trends were influenced by the impact of the lingering economic and political gloom.
Based on research conducted by Prof Toingam Guptabutra of Silpakorn University, three leading trends that stood out this year included representational art, NFT art and political art. Her findings essentially expressed the general mood and reflection found within Thailand's art ecosystem made up of gallery owners, curators, collectors and artists.
Toingam said the third wave of Covid-19 cases as expected financially impacted the art scene to a large extent, leading galleries to focus on artwork deemed marketable and profitable.
During her research, she found that gallery owners opted to work with artists that understood the heavy financial responsibility they carried and thus were on the same page when it came to creating art with the potential to attract a more diverse group of buyers.
She said since the pandemic, this had become a survival tactic for galleries, especially owners that do not have deep pockets to help them survive in a depressed economy.
Representational art, whether a tree in a landscape, a portrait and so on, became bankable in 2021 because of its wider audience. The main component is that it should be appealing to the eye so buyers can use it decoratively, or use it to sell for a profit at a later stage. There is also a good chance that buyers will become return customers.
Despite the fact that representational art might not necessarily be making waves, the market for it is huge and continues to grow despite the pandemic.
Toingam said that recently, oil paintings of flowers in this genre by a southern Thailand artist recently sold like hot cakes in Bangkok, in fact, all her paintings were sold. This shows how buyers, not necessarily collectors, are ready to pay for creations that directly appeal to the eye.
Inspired by manta rays, the Manta NFT collection by artist Rachakrit Suttarattanamongkol is available on OpenSea. (Photo: www.opensea.io/collection/the-manta)
Toingam said a close second has been NFT art, which is a new method of categorising digital art that enable designers to monetise their creations.
NFT, which stands for a non-fungible token, hides in those quirky artworks a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a digital ledger that uses blockchain technology to establish proof of ownership.
Some NFT art comes with royalties for the artist, meaning every time the artwork is sold, the artist can receive 8-10% of all future sales. This depends upon which platform the artist is using. Zora, for instance, is an NFT platform with the "creative share" option, meaning users can buy and trade artworks immediately.
Toingam said this form of art, which is more of a platform for investment, has received a mixed reaction in terms of how successful it has been for young artists: "Some have been successful while others have yet to sell any of their art. This has raised questions about whether this is truly a platform where artists can build a career and survive.
"On closer observation, we see that via NFT artists can face market manipulation by buyers, which can often put them at a disadvantage. So we can easily rebuff the claim that artists have an equal chance of making it big on this platform. Despite its popularity, it does not mean that everyone gets to taste the success they hoped for. In this manner, it is no different from what artists face in the conventional way of making a living. From my research, I found that NFT art is booming because of the simple reason that the work can be seen by a large audience. In short, they have space to showcase their art as they would in a gallery. It is every Thai artist's dream to have their own exhibition, however, in reality, for many, this can be an uphill task because there are way more artists than galleries and art collectors in the country.
"We have approximately 100,000 artists and 120 galleries of all types and shapes and sizes across the nation. From this number, galleries that actively generate an income for artists and take them abroad to sell their work are not more than 20. Serious art collectors also number less than 40. The huge gap between the number of artists and art space conveys the biggest struggle for Thai artists today, because this means that the majority go unnoticed and need to struggle doubly hard to get noticed by gallery owners, dealers and curators. This puts them in a bind as they have to churn out artwork that is marketable and appealing to the meagre 39 serious art collectors in the country, which includes the Ministry of Culture."
Artist Prakit Kobkijwattana shares his political views in Whose Homeland?. (Photo Courtesy of VS Gallery)
Toingam said the inability of most Thai artists to find a venue to showcase their art makes NFTs an appealing way to introduce their work to a worldwide audience.
"This has become the reason NFTs have become a phenomenal success with Thai artists, even though a number still believe that they would opt to have a steady income come from showcasing their work at a gallery, and do NFTs as a sideline job."
Besides representational art and NFTs, Toingam said there has been a growing trend for political art that particularly focuses on the rising turmoil between the public and present government. Buyers of such art are a niche group as the 39 major collectors in the country are supporters of the current government.
Due largely to a lack of domestic buyers, Toingam also noted that aspiring Thai artists endeavoured this year to introduce various types of art forms in a bid to create a social media following.
"Online buyers are a market most artists do their best to attract via social media platforms. That is why the trends are no longer about what artists are passionate about but rather what will sell. The majority create artwork that generates an income, thus the focus is on what buyers desire rather than ideology like in the past."
Trends for 2022, according to Toingam, will largely depend on how helpful the government can be in supporting local artists to explore other art forms which are not necessarily marketable to the masses.
