La Lanta Fine Art is hosting "Prophilia", the first solo exhibition in Thailand by renowned Vietnamese contemporary artist Richard Streitmatter-Tran, from Saturday to April 5.
Held in collaboration with Vin Gallery in Vietnam, the exhibition will bring an extended series of portrait paintings inspired by the mediated social world of profile images and their relation to the long tradition of portraiture painting.
Using social media networks, the artist solicits profile images as initial references. He strips off their meta information and contextual tagging and then paints portraits that transform the subjects -- and in many cases -- returns an image of the final paintings to the original posters.
His works feature watercolour and gouache on metal plates, which are ubiquitous items found throughout Vietnam and often resemble reflecting mirrors.
The collection is aimed at reflecting a connection between the immateriality of electronic screen-based lives and the material objects of everyday life.
The exhibition's title is an invented word bringing together the words "profile" and "philia", which means the love of something.
Streitmatter-Tran earned his degree in the Studio for Interrelated Media school at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. His work has been exhibited internationally and can be found in numerous publications worldwide as well as in private and public collections.
La Lanta Fine Art is located at Unit B, 3rd floor of N22 Art Warehouse, Narathiwat Ratchanakharin 22 and opens Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 7pm.
Visit lalanta.com or call 02-050-7882.
