Bangkok, Thailand. 18 July 2025 (2568!)
Art in an Art Bar
Behold, the mini-show at Allso, ’tis up! I myself will see it in a day and change.
I put up a special page to showcase these three paintings:
They are, from left to right:
I am immensely pleased to have so many eyes on the work, especially since it’s a bar full of art and (one hopes) the patrons are more art-appreciative than the average drinkers.
I’m also just back from LA (and, and) – the Jetlag within you is strong, ลูก!
So I won’t dwell on this much right now, I have other things I must do, chief among them slumber.
But I will note one thing: I’ve always had mixed feelings about the best venue for paintings. I went to a lot of galleries on this trip, and yes, of course there is a good thing about the pristine white walls and all that. But it’s also sterile, and most of the galleries are designed to keep out the riff-raff, meaning (at minimum) anyone not sufficiently clued-in to make the trip; and even in the best case, you have an opening crowd and then a few people trickle in and eventually you have a closing.
There’s a very friendly gallery near my condo that can be seen very clearly from the Skytrain station exit and tends to have big paintings that catch your eye as you walk down to the street, and it’s the easiest thing in the world to jump into the café on the ground floor and walk up to the gallery. But I would be genuinely surprised if ten people did that in an average day. It’s an extremely nice place, but the humbler pictures shown in the café itself get many times the eyes.
Is a bar, a café, a restaurant the best place for contemporary art, at least that part of it that can fit on a wall or a plinth?
Probably not. But it’s not a bad place, and I am very attracted to the deal of more eyes in exchange for many of those eyes not resting on the work. I think on average you still get more lookers. In the ideal case, the work becomes part of their memory of the space.
And for my “scary faces,” honestly it might just be the best place after all.
If you’re in Bangkok, come on down and see!