High hopes

High hopes

Sutima Sucharitakul, founder of Bangkok's new art spaceNova Contemporary, has big ambitions for the scene

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE
High hopes
Sutima Sucharitakul. Photos by Jiraporn Kuhakan

As a kid, rather than wanting to spend a day at Disneyland, Sutima Sucharitakul begged her parents to take her to museums -- a request they gladly granted. So it was places like the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert that they would visit when in London, the Palace of Versailles when in France, or churches and synagogues when in other European countries.

These weren't exactly places other seven-year-olds would want to go, and it isn't a total surprise then that Sutima, now 27, has founded and launched her own art space, Nova Contemporary, on Ratchadamri Road.

"It's not just when we were travelling abroad," said Sutima. "In Thailand, we would go to temples all the time and I liked the murals so much. I was very much a Miss Why?, always asking my parents about those paintings or how come Buddhist figures look the way they do."

But it hasn't been exactly a direct path, for her early interest was on the side of historic artefacts and traditional and religious art, while Nova Contemporary is set to be an experimental art space where, Sutima said, "there are not only paintings, and not just a place where people come in to buy artworks as if they were a piece of furniture and then leave".

Sutima's art space just opened at the end of March with a debut show entitled "Today Is The Day: The Proposition Of Our Future", a travelling exhibition from the Miyauchi Art Foundation Hiroshima, running until June 30. The exhibition comprises of works by 10 leading international artists, names like Jean-Luc Vilmouth, Yoshimoto Nara and Ryusuke Ito.

After spending much of her childhood in Phuket, Sutima went to England to finish her last two years of high school, where she had her first encounter with art history classes. To her, the education system there suited her perfectly, for she is no good with either maths or science, and for A-level, she opted for subjects like French, film studies, religious studies and art history.

"I couldn't paint, yet I had always wondered why I like going to museums so much," she said. "In art history class I was the only international student, and there was this teacher who many times asked me if I wanted to drop out or not because the subject is quite tough. I felt challenged, and I kept reading more and more on the subject, and that was one of the reasons I am where I am today."

For her bachelor's degree, she opted for fashion journalism and promotion at the University of the Arts, London, a decision she soon realised wasn't right for her. It was when she enrolled in the art business programme at Sotheby's Institute that she realised again that art is her true passion.

"It felt so right, and I should have done that for a bachelor's degree," said Sutima. "It's like we [students] finally got to speak the same language. It was good for networking, and now I have friends who have galleries of their own."

After that, Sutima did her master's degree in art history, with a focus on Asian art, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Sutima later got work as an intern in the Asian art department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, joining the research team for the exhibition "Lost Kingdoms", an international loan exhibition exploring the sculptural art produced in the earliest kingdoms of Southeast Asia.

Despite providing her with the chance to work in one of the best museums in the world, her time at The Met is one of the reasons she shifted from traditional to contemporary art.

"While working at the Met, all I did was read and research in a room, not seeing anything," she recalled. "Doing a museum show is a very academic affair that requires a lot of research and proofs. That was around the same time I went to contemporary galleries in New York more, and realised I wanted to talk with artists."

With the recent opening of Nova Contemporary, Sutima sees that the Thai contemporary art scene has developed significantly, citing new places such as Bangkok CityCity Gallery or Gallery VER. According to her, the only way forward is for these art spaces to grow together.

Yoshimoto Nara's Ukedo Elementary School C-print series currently on display at Nova Contemporary.

"I didn't want to open a gallery in a commercial sense," said Sutima. "I get really uncomfortable when every time you talk about a gallery, you only think of paintings. Contemporary art is not just about that, and what I want is for people to come in and discuss the works, getting a true understanding of what the artists are trying to do."

Aside from exhibiting international and Thai artists as other spaces normally do, two other aims of Nova Contemporary are offering consultation in areas such as art acquisition, insurance, installation and storage, and educating the general public through talks with artists, collectors and specialists.

"The problem with our art scene is we have a lot of great artists yet all of them are represented by galleries abroad, and Thais hardly know them," said Sutima. "We can say that the food chain in our art community is not complete. There are not many collectors out there, and, without collectors, artists can't survive."

Also worth pointing out, from Sutima's perspective, is the fact that there's no proper government institution that buys and collects works by contemporary Thai artists, and, as a result of that, if we want to see works by modern and contemporary Thai masters, one of the very few places we can do so is the recently opened National Gallery Singapore.

For Nova Contemporary, Sutima is giving herself three years to find out whether she can change the way society perceives art, and at the same time help artists get on by generating more collectors in Thailand.

"Through our shows," Sutima aims, "we want our collectors to realise that these artworks are not only worth collecting for their sentimental value but also good investments. I hope through Nova Contemporary, we can support the Thai contemporary art scene and become the stimulus for creativity. I believe Bangkok is ready to become Asia's next world-class art destination."

Art pieces from Nova Contemporary’s inaugural exhibition ‘Today Is The Day: The Proposition Of Our Future’.

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