Jiab Prachakul, Guillaume (2023). Acrylic on linen canvas. 200 x 160 x 4 cm. Courtesy Micki Meng.
Jiab Prachakul, O Thongthai (2023). Acrylic on linen canvas. 200 x 160 x 4 cm. Courtesy Micki Meng.
Jiab Prachakul, Jeonga (In Nia's Eyes) (2023). Acrylic on linen canvas. 160 x 200 x 4cm. Courtesy Micki Meng.
Jiab Prachakul, Night Talk (2019). Acrylic on canvas. 39.4 x 39.4 in. Courtesy Micki Meng.
Self-taught painter Jiab Prachakul‘s big break came when she won the BP Portrait Prize at London’s National Portrait Gallery in 2020 for her double portrait Night Talk (2019) of the artist’s friends Jeonga, a designer from Korea, and Makoto a composer from Japan, on a visit to Berlin.
The win caught the attention of San Francisco-based gallerist Micki Meng, and transatlantic dealer Timothy Taylor. Both galleries chose to represent Prachakul, and three years on she is presenting her second solo show with Micki Meng.
How you see yourself through another is the focus of the exhibition Simplicity/Complexity (26 October–22 November 2023) in San Francisco. Born in Nakhon Phanom, northeast Thailand, Prachakul spent her adult life in Europe: first in Berlin, then Lyon, now Brittany. When in Lyon, the artist had an identity crisis of sorts. Compared to Berlin, the city felt more homogenous, and—having just moved to the French city—lonely.
‘I started to focus on what I wanted to say about myself. What matters to me?’ she told The New York Times Style Magazine.
Around this time, she switched from oil to acrylic, bringing new density and freedom to her paintings. She also began painting Asian people.
‘When I look at the paintings that I like, I don’t see any Asian figures that represent my generation,’ she said. ‘I want to be included there, and since I am a portrait artist, why not depict what is really here, who I really am and the people around me.’
In her new paintings for the show, Prachakul focuses on people who give her the support to move forward confidently. In doing so, Prachakul’s latest exhibition is full of friends, family, and her extended community.
When painting her husband in Guillaume (2023), for example, Prachakul was occupied by the question of ‘how much of him is reflected through me and me through him’.
While Berliners (2023), which depicts two German-Japanese sisters who Prachakul met in a ramen house, focuses on her connection with the Asian diaspora.
What Prachakul is doing, says Micki Meng, is ‘challenging the status quo and giving permanence to those within her sphere.’
Main image: Jiab Prachakul, Jeonga (In Nia's Eyes) (2023). Acrylic on linen canvas. 160 x 200 x 4cm. Courtesy Micki Meng.
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