Join us on Saturday, March 30 at the Art Central auditorium for this insightful conversation between one of Asia Society’s 2019 Asia Art Award Honorees, Natee Utarit, and Boon Hui Tan, the Vice President of Global Arts & Cultural Programs and Director of Asia Society Museum, New York. With an Eastern root and a Westernized expression, Utarit will share on the fascinating symbolism deployed in his iconic paintings of the last decade. 

Natee Utarit is a Thai artist best known for his photorealist paintings that subtly critique the socio-political dynamics of post-colonial Thailand. His neoclassical compositions often feature biblical and Buddhist symbols and anthropomorphize animals in the manner of Aesop’s Fables and George Orwell’s Animal Farm as a means to illuminate uncomfortable truths about contemporary society. Utarit’s work has been the subject of international solo and group exhibitions including at the Ayala Museum, Manila (2017); Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2015); Museum of Contemporary Art (now Kiasma), Helsinki (2001); and the Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (1999).

Boon Hui Tan is Vice President for Global Arts and Cultural Programs, and Director, Asia Society Museum, NY, where he leads the organisation’s global arts and cultural activities spanning visual arts, performing arts and film. As museum director, he oversees Asia Society Museum’s acclaimed exhibition programmes and collections, including the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection of Traditional Asian Art and the Contemporary Art Collection of photography and new media works by Asian and Asian American artists. Prior to this, he was Assistant Chief Executive (Museum & Programs) at the National Heritage Board (NHB) in Singapore overseeing exhibitions, programmes and outreach events across the Board’s museums, institutions and divisions. In 2015, he was Artistic Director for Singapour en France, le Festival, the largest multidisciplinary presentation of contemporary culture from Singapore and Southeast Asia in France. As a curator and programmer, his research and writing interests focuses on the contemporary artistic expressions of Southeast Asia and Asia and the remaking of traditions among artists of today. Tan is a founding board member of the International Biennial Association.