Artist of the day: May 2025

Saturday, May 31, 2025

Artist of the Day, May 31, 2025 : Navin Rawanchaikul, a Thai sculptor, painter, photographer (#2293)

Navin Rawanchaikul (1971) was born in Chiang Mai, Thailand. As a child of parents of the Indian diaspora who migrated to Thailand during Partition, his ancestry lies in the Hindi-Punjabi communities of present-day Pakistan. After receiving his BFA from Chiang Mai University in 1993, Rawanchaikul founded the Chiang Mai–based Navin Production Co., Ltd., in 1994. Much of Rawanchaikul’s own work is produced under the name of this company, which also functions as an artists’ collective. Working in various mediums including sculpture, painting, performance, photography, and film, Rawanchaikul began his practice with community-driven projects aimed at integrating art into everyday contexts.

In Navin Gallery Bangkok (1995–98), Rawanchaikul questions modern methods of art making and exhibiting by converting an ordinary taxi into a mobile gallery featuring rotating exhibitions. The project was later executed in a number of international cities, including Sydney, London, Bonn, and New York, successfully attracting new audiences with the help of its unconventional format. Rawanchaikul’s practice often relies on collaboration, as in the tongue-in-cheek Navin Party (2006), which involved a touring multimedia exhibition featuring a Bollywood-style music video, a billboard advertisement, and a series of propaganda posters, all aimed at connecting people with the first name Navin. The multipart work comments on what the artist frames as the transitory nature of the modern world—revealed through the global occurrence of the Sanskrit-based name—as well as referencing the way in which artists can find their ethnic origins exploited for commercial gain. By involving the participation of real or imagined communities, Rawanchaikul’s practice transcends site-specificity to negotiate between local communities and globalization.

In 2010, Rawanchaikul was awarded the national Silapathorn citation from the Thai Ministry of Culture in the field of visual arts. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; MoMA P.S.1 in collaboration with Public Art Fund, New York; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok; Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong; Ullens Center For Contemporary Art, Beijing; and Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore. He represented Thailand at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011). Rawanchaikul lives and works in Chiang Mai and Fukuoka, Japan.
© 2025. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Navin Rawanchaikul or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Navin Rawanchaikul

There is no voice, 1995

M'art, 2002

M'art, 2002 detail

Super (M)art : Bangkok Survivor, 2004-15

In search of the lost kingdom of Navin, 2007

Navin Party, 2007

Navins of Bollywood II, 2007

Ceramic bust holding a book, 2008

2008

Long Heart, 2009

Places of Rebirth, 2009 Detail

Places of Rebirth, 2009

2009

2010

Fly with me to another world, 2011 detail

2011

Super (M)art : Bangkok Survivor, 2015 detail

Super (M)art : Bangkok Survivor, 2015

Super (M)art : Bangkok Survivor, 2015 detail

2016

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Artist of the Day, May 30, 2025: Deborah Segun, a Nigerian emerging artist, painter (#2292)

Deborah Segun (1994), born in Nigeria, is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Lagos, Nigeria.. She obtained a degree in Fashion Design at the Polimoda Institute of Fashion Design and Marketing in Florence, Italy in 2017. During her studies in fashion, she translated her own art production into clothing, creating conceptual and sculptural wearable pieces. Deborah’s works can be described as a mix between cubism and abstraction; she takes a playful, purist approach to her work by focusing on form rather than detail, through the use of different artistic mediums. Her works are mainly figurative with a focus on portraiture. The inspiration behind her works stem from her personal and shared experiences as a woman, as well as observations of any given space she occupies at a time. She tries to capture these experiences through her unique and experimental use of colours and shapes, which she believes creates a sense of simplicity and calmness out of a rather complex scenario. She exaggerates the figures or displaces them, as she believes it is her own way of confronting how she sees things. She also likes to isolate shapes from the subjects/ objects and put them together to create a new composition.

Celebrating the diverse bodies of women through shape and colour, Segun’s voluptuous figures dominate the canvas and are rendered with striking palettes. The Artist frames each swath of pigment with sharp lines that provide context, depth, and emphasis to guide her viewers through each piece.

The fractured forms often overlap with one another, seemingly displaying the subjects from multiple perspectives at once. Segun chooses a warm and soft composition and plays on tonal differences to portray the tenderness that comes with loving and allowing yourself to be loved by others.

Segun’s paintings, showcase her resolve in strengthening relationships and connections, storing profound details of friendships through mundane events, acknowledging differences and promoting harmonious balance. She tries to capture these experiences through her unique and experimental use of colours and shapes, which she believes creates a sense of simplicity and calmness out of a rather complex scenario.
© 2025. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Deborah Segun or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only