Korakrit Arunanondchai is a video and multimedia artist originally from

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

who now splits his time between

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

and Bangkok. He is best known for his 2017 installation, ''With history in a room filled with people with funny names 4'', which received widely positive reviews and was recognized with an award at the

International Film Festival Rotterdam The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental fi ...

Early life

Arunanondchai was born in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

in 1986. His father was a first-generation Thai whose family had immigrated from China, while his mother grew up in several countries due to her father's position as a diplomat. He acquired an interest in the arts through music, which expanded to include visual art while studying at

NIST International School NIST International School ( th, โรงเรียนนานาชาตินิสท์, ) is an international school located in Watthana District, Bangkok, Thailand. It was established in 1992 with support and guidance from the Bangk ...

in Bangkok. Upon graduating from NIST, he attended

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2009 before going on to earn a Master of Fine Arts from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 2012.

Career

Shortly after the completion of his MFA, Arunanondchai was named as one of the 2013 recipients of the Emerging Artist Grant from the Hort Mann Foundation, an award intended to support promising New York-based artists. His first professional work included participation in group showings at the

SculptureCenter SculptureCenter is a not-for-profit, contemporary art museum located in Long Island City, Queens, New York City. It was founded in 1928 as "The Clay Club" by Dorothea Denslow. In 2013, SculptureCentre attracted around 13,000 visitors. History Fou ...

and

Fisher Landau Center The Fisher Landau Center for Art is a private foundation located in Long Island City, in Queens, New York City, United States. It offered regular exhibitions of contemporary art, open to the public from 12 to 5pm, Thursdays through Mondays, until ...

, as well as solo exhibitions in New York and Brussels. In 2014

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

hosted his first solo museum exhibition, ''2012-2055'', which included both videos and paintings that explored the concept of transformation and his own evolution as an artist. In 2018 Arunanondchai received the Ammodo Tiger Short Award at the

for ''With history in a room filled with people with funny names 4'', the fourth entry in his ongoing film series ''Together with history in a room filled with people with funny names''. That same year he released the fifth entry, ''No history in a room filled with people with funny names 5'', and also launched a Bangkok video-art festival with the inaugural event ''Ghost:2561'', highlighting the connections between Thailand's strong tradition of

animism Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Ro ...

and contemporary art. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

in 2020, a planned exhibition in New York was postponed due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus throughout the city. However, Arunanondchai's newest video exploring the death of his grandfather, ''Songs for dying'', was shown in 2021 at the Kunsthall Trondheim gallery in Norway and at the

Gwangju Biennale The Gwangju Biennale is a contemporary art biennale founded in September 1995 in Gwangju, South Jeolla province, South Korea. The Gwangju Biennale is hosted by the Gwangju Biennale Foundation and the city of Gwangju. The Gwangju Biennale Founda ...

in South Korea.

References

Living people

Korakrit Arunanondchai Korakrit Arunanondchai is a video and multimedia artist originally from Bangkok who now splits his time between Brooklyn and Bangkok. He is best known for his 2017 installation, ''With history in a room filled with people with funny names 4'', whi ...

Video artists Multimedia artists

1986 births Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Rhode Island School of Design alumni Artists from Brooklyn {{Thailand-artist-stub