PINAREE SANPITAK

Influenced by her own journey of motherhood, Sanpitak is best known for abstracting the female form into elemental parts such as vessels, eggs and curvatures. The female breast, in particular, is a recurring motif. Coined as the ‘breast-stupa’, the form of the vessel and mound simultaneously resembles a Buddhist shrine and an alms bowl. This reorients the viewer’s perception of the female body through combining ideas of the sacred and the sexualised. In Noon-nom (2001–2002), an interactive installation with a title that means both “support” and “breast milk” in Thai, the artist invites viewers to rest within a sea of soft, flesh-toned breast-stupa sculptures. The work references Buddha’s ability to multiply himself a thousandfold, bringing together associations with the spiritual and bodily, the sensitive and playful.

Sanpitak obtained her BFA at the University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki in 1986. Her work can be found in major collections worldwide including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,; Nasher Museum of Art, Durham; Toledo Museum of Art; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum; Singapore Art Museum; and the Ministry of Culture, Thailand.

Notable exhibitions include Ocean in Us (2024), Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Art, Kaohsiung; Connecting Bodies (2024), National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Wild (2024), Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manila; New Large Scale Artworks (2023), Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Collection 1: Vessels (2022), 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; The House is Crumbling (2018), National Gallery Singapore; and Problem-Wisdom (2017), Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including CHAOS : CALM (2022), 4th Bangkok Art Biennale; The Milk of Dreams (2022), 59th Venice Biennale, Venice; Restoration of the Sea (2019), 4th Setouchi Triennale, Honjima; JIWA (2017), 17th Jakarta Biennale; All Our Relations (2012): 18th Biennale of Sydney; So Close Yet So Far Away (2009), 2nd Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale; Expenditure (2008), 4th Busan Biennale; Art Circus (2005), 2nd Yokohama Triennale.

The artist had two residencies at the STPI Workshop in 2018 and 2025; the former culminated in the exhibition Fragmented Bodies: The Personal and the Public (2019).

Courtesy STPI