Venus Resurrection

In his youth, Thai artist Kraisak Chirachisakul intensely enjoyed creating oil canvas paintings that expressed the complexity of desire, beauty, sweetness, innocence, and peace. More often than not, he captured this in still life movements and poses of the female form.

As is often the case, the time for these paintings gave way to the responsibilities of a young family; putting food on the table, educating children, and dealing with the everyday pressures of life that we all face.Kraisak turned from art to a more secure career as a business man.

In 2018, on randomly meeting a woman in an art gallery, Kraisak was reminded of his passion for still life painting. Her name was Anastasia and her gentleness, sweetness, and calm flooded his mind with memories of his younger self. He realized that his passion for romanticism had been frozen in time.

Feeling his creative energy reignited by Anastasia, Kraisak took to his studio to create a series of paintings catching her fragility, beauty and youth. Drawing upon the techniques learnt as a printmaker, many of the works in this exhibition are in dry-point printmaking and mezzotint. But working with Anastasia also motivated him to pick up a paintbrush and put oil on canvas for the first time in 30 years.

In naming his exhibition, Kraisak turned to Greek mythology. ‘Anástasis’ means ‘resurrection’: significant as Anastasia sparked his passion for painting.