Dancing in the Light, 2020

Lampu Kansanoh is known for her unique and humorous paintings that illustrate a blend of everyday affairs with wild imagination, which comes from her own experiences, family and friends, to famous people and social events and cultural practices that make up the Thai way of life. Kansanoh’s art combines a variety of topics, such as the countryside, Songkran traditions in contemporary society, a society of heads bowed toward screens — plagued by an addiction to smartphones, the happiness of elderly couples and young couples, important people in the government of Thailand, as well as the president of the United States of America. Kansanoh picks a character and conjures their background story in a satirical illustration, using expert portrait painting skills characterized by sweeping brush strokes and bold solid colors to reveal the powerful emotions of her subjects as well as her own playful temperament.

Kansanoh’s works in BAB 2020 cover topics ranging from rural children and youth participating in local traditional festivities, the current COVID-19 pandemic, to a society that worships beautiful people and celebrities. Many are large-scale works that contain myriads of stories and people, conveyed through faces expressing discontent and pain or joy and laughter and gestures channeling powerful emotions. Her works are an operatic stage of human theater where various people dance and perform their roles in different contexts.