Artist : Vichaya Mukdamanee
Technique : Acrylic and ink on canvas
Year : 2018
Size : 90 x 120 cm

In 2018, Leaning and Flourish was created for the “Dialogue of Father and Son” duo exhibition, to be shown the following year at The Queen’s Gallery in Bangkok. For 2 years, artists Vichaya Mukdamanee and his father, Professor Vichoke Mukdamanee planned the show together. The concept of the exhibition was to visually narrate the relationship between two artists who are father and son, they were to learn from each other, communicate and exchange ideas by using art as a vehicle of those thoughts.

“It is undeniable that my father was a big influence in my decision to pursue art. Whether it was because we spent 35 years of our lives together or because of our DNA connection that created this intentional and unintentional pull. It is natural for children who are following the footsteps of family members to try to distance themselves and find their own way… Some succeed but for me, when looking back, the further I tried to go, the closer I was and the more different I tried to be, the more similarities I found. The ‘Dialogue of Father and Son” exhibition was the first time in my art making career that I stopped searching for the difference in artwork between mine and my father’s but embraced him as my greatest inspiration in life”.

“I studied my father’s paintings from the years 1974 to 1984. They represented new forms of living things with thoughts and beliefs that are in a constant state of evolving. Brushstrokes expressed the contrasting state of completion and deterioration, the spray paint, water and oil paint formed independent textures that embraced organic shapes with a life of their own. As seen in the work New State (240x240cm) that won the silver medal (2nd prize) in the painting category at the 30th National Exhibition of Art in 1984 and Subconscious (150x120cm) that won first prize at the The Bualuang Painting Competition in the Thai contemporary category also in 1984″.

“Leaning and Flourish is my attempt in understanding the movements of my father’s brushstrokes. I zoomed into his paintings to observe minute details. I discarded any knowledge about the concept of nature and living things, and decided to present only the mannerism and rhythm of each line, colour, weight and surface texture. I searched for how they interacted and its state of abstractionism. The paintings are not a comparative exercise of the natural world but a research into the feelings emoted after working on an art piece where each one reveals the hidden lives of an artwork, its growth and blooming patterns”.