The contemporary art galleries of Silom Galleria covered in the first part of this Bangkok walking tour are near four other interesting art spaces. (The best galleries near Sukhumvit and Ratchaphisek roads are covered here.) From Silom Galleria, walk northeastward on Silom Road. Just past the Indian temple, turn right onto a lane called Pan Road or Soi Pan. A short way down and across the street is a small renovated shophouse where Kathmandu Photo Gallery is located.
It’s dedicated to photography and run by Manit Sriwanichpaboom, a well-known art and commercial photographer. Usually he shows recent work by Thai photographers or foreign photographers living in Thailand. But a recent exhibition featured photomontages by New Yorker Bruce Gunderson.
Kathmandu Photo Gallery 87 Pan Road
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am to 7 pm
Phone: (66) 02-234-6700
Farther along Pan Road, on the same side of the street as Kathmandu, is one of the newest entries on the Bangkok art scene. Founded by a young American, Andrew Little, Conference of Birds isn’t a place to buy works by rising young painters or sculptors. It is dedicated to political art and specializes in video installations, Its website still needs a lot of work, though.
Conference of Birds Gallery 131/18 Pan Road
Hours: Monday to Friday, noon to 8 pm
Saturday to Sunday, 2 pm to 8 pm
Phone: (66) 085-928-1152, 084-928-1152
Sathorn Road Area Galleries
The next stop, H Gallery, is a little difficult to find. Continue along Pan Road, turn left on North Sathorn Road and then left again on Sathorn Soi 12. The gallery is a few hundred meters along on the right-hand side. It's set back from the road in a handsome white and green wooden building, which was once a schoolhouse.
H. Ernest Lee, another American, opened it in 2002 with the idea of grooming young Thai artists and exclusively representing them. Nowadays some of the artists represented here are older and established, such as Somboon Hormtientong, who built an international reputation while living for many years in Germany. Others whose work appears here, but not exclusively, are Thailand-based Japanese photographer Masato Seto and Sopheap Pich, a Cambodian who makes interesting works from bamboo, rattan and other fibers. Sometimes works from H are shown at the posh Eat Me restaurant on Soi PhiPhat, a lane off Convent Road.
H Gallery 210 Sathorn Soi 12 (0ff North Sathorn Road)
Hours: Wednesday to Monday, 10 am-6pm, Tuesday by appointment
Phone: (66) 081-310-4428
Surapon, the final gallery on the tour, is worth visiting--if it's open. It only staged three shows in 2008 and two month-long shows in the first half of 2009. On the ground floor of yet another icy skyscraper, it sticks to solo exhibits of well-established Thai artists. In the past few years, they've included sculptors Chumphon Uthayophat and Vipoo Srivilasa and painters Daeng Buasaen and Vasan Sitthiket.
Another reason to check ahead: Sathorn Road is not a pleasant pedestrian pathway. It's a wide, traffic-choked, polluted thoroughfare with broken sidewalks. After retracing one's steps from H Gallery back to North Sathorn Road, a motorcycle taxi or tuk-tuk may be in order to go farther down ugly North Sathorn Road. The distance amounts to about two city blocks, though. Surapon Gallery is close to the the Lumpini subway stop and near enough to the Saladaeng Skytrain station and Saladaeng subway stop. At least Soi Saladaeng is a more pleasant walk -- shady with a variety of good bistros.
Unlike all the galleries mentioned above and in Part 1, Surapon doesn't have its own website, but it does have pages on the Rama IX arts organization website. It even has slide shows of current and past exhibitions. The printed editions of the English-language newspapers, the Bangkok Post and The Nation, frequently list ongoing art shows. A free monthly entertainment guide, BK, carries a complete listing of art events. Also look for the free monthly Bangkok Art Map in these galleries or museums.
Surapon Gallery First floor, TISCO Tower, 48/3 North Sathorn Road
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am-6pm
Phone: (66) 02-638-0033/3
Susan Cunningham - I'm a well-traveled writer and editor living in Thailand. My travel articles have appeared in in-flights, newspapers and guidebooks.
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