Together with the National Gallery and the French Embassy, the Toot Yung Gallery is pleased to announce the first retrospective of Chiang Mai based painter Pakitsilp Varamissara.

Pakitsilp Varamissara’s solitary pictorial quest cannot be categorized. The simplicity, freshness and the immediately striking brilliance that characterize his work came into being only as a result of much deep thought.

For the first time a retrospective is dedicated to this single minded painter providing a comprehensive overview of his over thirty year career. The exhibition, which brings together nearly 200 works, presents an unparalleled opportunity to study the artist’s development, beginning with his early traditional Thai paintings and concluding with his final, sparely abstract and primitive paintings.

Pakitsilp Varamissara was born in Lopburi in 1954. He trained in the discipline of traditional Thai painting at Silapakorn University in Bangkok, which has served as a foundation for the artistic challenges of his impressive body of work. The rich cultural heritage of Thailand inspires the artist as he works to reconcile tradition and modernity, most recently achieving a simplicity that borders on abstraction. His fascinating oeuvre subtly interweaves symbols of Buddhist iconography, Thai folklore and everyday modern life.

Pakitsilp Varamissara is truly on the solitary and sometimes chaotic path of the deepest self- expression: Creation.

Myrtille Tibayrenc
Curator