Tawan Wattuya's exhibition "Out Of The Frying Pan Into The Fire" juxtaposes the artist's oil-on-canvas paintings from 2005 with those he created in the past year. Browsing newspapers and social media to find inspiration, Tawan humorously captures the zeitgeist and prominent newsmakers of then and now.
Politicians, musicians, singers, sportsmen and emerging internet idols all figure on Tawan's cultural wall of fame. Some have faded, few have passed away, but most are still recurring names in our daily conversations.
Unsurprisingly, in Tawan's playful look at Thailand's sociopolitical landscape via the media lens, little has changed in just over a decade.
Although today our way of consuming the news is entirely different, the front-page figures have stayed the same, and so has the general obsession with fame.
Are we just living in a never-ending loop?
The artist, who rose to fame thanks to his witty, comical aquarelle paintings, returns to oil painting for this exhibition, which opens at Artist + Run Gallery, Soi Taweewattana (Narathiwat 22) on Sunday. The exhibition runs until March 25.
