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Jiab Prachakul: Sweet Solitude

The Contemporary Austin, TX
31 January – 3 August 2025

This is the first solo museum exhibition of artist Jiab Prachakul (b. 1979, Nakhon Phanom, Thailand), a self-taught artist, originally trained in film, living and working in Vannes, France. Her sensitive and distinctive paintings are conceived as layers of time that enfold memories, dreams, photographs, and references to cinema, providing an intimate window into the artist's circle of friends, family, and muses. The figures in Prachakul's work are often from the Asian diaspora, addressing a gap in the Western canon and challenging the Orientalist perspective prevalent in 19th-century French painting. Her richly textured canvases contextualize her subjects within their daily environments as well as cinematic scenes she constructs through extensive in person photographic sessions.