Michael Shaowanasai (Thai: ไมเคิล เชาวนาศัย) (born 1964) is a Thai-American artist and actor who lives in Bangkok, Thailand. His works includes performance art, photography, video, film and installations. Openly gay, his works are often provocative, such as photographic portrait of himself as a Buddhist monk made up to look like a woman. Active as an artist since 1997, his works have featured in international exhibitions since 1999, and his work is held in major collections.
Shaowanasai is a founding member of Project 304, a contemporary art group based in Bangkok. Their work included
the installation and performance Welcome to My Land... Come and Taste the Paradise, and the performance Fresh Young Boys' Semen for Sale.[3]
His solo shows include MS@OAS, a photography installation at Open Art Space in Bangkok, as well as shows at the Fujikawa Gallery in Osaka, Japan,[citation needed]Gallery 4A in Sydney, Australia, and Ottawa Art Gallery, Canada.[2]
Shaowanasai, who is openly gay, ran the inaugural Gay and Lesbian Video Festival in Thailand in 2002.[1] His 2003 photographic artwork, Portrait of a Man in Habits, comprised a photograph of himself dressed as a Buddhist monk with make-up on to look like a woman. This caused an angry response from Buddhists, who tried to stop the photographs from being exhibited, to which he responded by showing the rolled-up photograph.[4]
In 2008 he curated the exhibition Lifeboat #2551 as part of the Sydney Biennale projects in Gallery 4A (now 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art). The exhibition also included video and film works by artists Wit Pimkanchanapong, Sakarin Krue-on, Tin Tin Cooper, Momokomotion, Manit Sriwanichpoom and others.[5]
Shaowanasai's work is represented in several institutions, including the Singapore Art Museum.[2]
Selected exhibitions
In 2012, Radu Die: New works by Michael Shaowanasai, was mounted at the H Gallery in Bangkok. His work has also been exhibited in Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America, including the following group exhibitions:[2]
