Jiab Prachakul

Wonder Women - Group Show curated by Kathy Huang

May 7–June 25, 2022 at 18 Wooster Street, New York

September 3–October 22, 2022 at 925 N. Orange Drive, Los Angeles

Jeffrey Deitch, New York, Los Angeles

Artwork: Purpose

I look at them and wonder if
They are a part of me
I look in their eyes and wonder if
They share my dreams
( Excerpt from “Wonder Woman” by Genny Lim )

Genny Lim’s poem “Wonder Woman,” first published in 1981, follows the reflections of a narrator who observes the everyday lives of Asian women—across generations, countries, and socioeconomic backgrounds—wondering if their experiences reflect her own. The poem centers Asian women as its protagonists and ponders what commonalities exist between these women.

Inspired by Lim’s poem, Wonder Women, curated by Kathy Huang, presents thirty Asian American and diasporic women and non-binary artists responding to themes of wonder, self, and identity through figuration. While some artists explore wonder as it relates to mythology and legend, others depict the heroines in their lives, offering works that highlight family, community, and history. Several of the works in Wonder Women address colonial and patriarchal structures in the West.

Frieze No. 9 Cork Street - Two-person Exhibition of Patty Chang and Jiab Prachakul

March 10-26, 2022

Presenting by Friends Indeed Gallery, San Francisco

Artwork: Series - Love from Three Continents

Jiab Prachakul’s Love from Three Continents depicts three Asian oriented families in three different continents dated back in her parents generation in the 80s when each couple just started their family, the stage of life the artist herself overlapped with.

FOG Artfair - Group show

January 20-23, 2022

Friends Indeed Gallery, San Francisco

Artwork: 5 AM at Jean Macé, 160 x 200 x 4 cm, 2021, Acrylic on linen.

Mother and Child - Group show

October 20, 2021–December 17, 2021

Friends Indeed Gallery, San Francisco

Artwork: First Friend, 140 x 160 x 4 cm, 2021, Acrylic on linen.

A publication will be released for the show with essays by Patty Chang, Amanda Hunt, Jenny-Gheith Levy, Mia Locks, and an introduction by Micki Meng.

IRL (In Real Life) - Group show

8 July – 21 August 2021

Timothy Taylor, London

15 Bolton Street

Artwork: Postcard from Bangkok, 160 x 200 x 4 cm, 2021, Acrylic on linen.

Timothy Taylor is delighted to present IRL (In Real Life) , a group exhibition of paintings, sculptures and textile-based works. The title of the exhibition draws from a phrase popularised on the Internet in the mid-1990s, which refers to the division in social relationships between life online and offline—the ‘real one’. Yet in the context of a pandemic that profoundly reduced human contact, cyberspace has come to dominate the ways we work, socialise and connect with the world, blurring the distinction between real and virtual experiences. IRL features work by Kesewa Aboah, Rebecca Ackroyd, Alma Berrow, Lily Bertrand-Webb, Will Brickel, Sahara Longe, Lydia Pettit, Jiab Prachakul, Alexis Ralaivao, Erin M. Riley, Antonia Showering and Honor Titus.

IRL explores how notions of the social and sensory experience— sensuality, togetherness and physicality— have been transformed by life lived wholly through the prism of the screen. Through textured tapestries and richly surfaced paintings, ceramic sculptures and hand-painted canvas wall hangings, many of the works in IRL are characterised by heightened materiality, which feels imbued with desire for the physicality of real-world experience. Some of the artists pay homage to lost experiences: the bonds of touch, or the hedonistic pleasure of eating and drinking among friends and family; others focus on how profoundly Internet culture has reshaped our senses, transforming the way we experience social contact, and acting as a site of memory for real-world experience and physical connection.

Jiab Prachakul: 14 Years

February 1 - April 30, 2021 at Friends Indeed Gallery, San Francisco

Friends Indeed Gallery is pleased to present the first U.S. solo exhibition for Thai-artist Jiab Prachakul. Prachakul was born in Nakhon Phanom, a small town on the Mekong River in northeast Thailand. She studied filmography at Thammasat Univer- sity before working as a casting director at a Bangkok production company. In 2006, she relocated to London and became inspired to paint after seeing a David Hockney retrospective. Shortly thereafter, she moved to Berlin. In a city known for its bohemian community of artists, Prachakul continued to pursue an entirely self-taught practice, making portraits of her flock of friends, many of whom were involved with fashion, film, and the visual arts.

For her show with Friends Indeed, Prachakul presents a significant new body of work exploring the nuances of Asian diasporic representation through a series of intimate portraits. The artist says:

our identity is given to us the moment we are born, but as we grow up it becomes a reflection of our choices: the books we read, the films we watch, the clothes we wear, the places we live, the foods we eat, and the people we spend our time with. These choices unfold themselves and are engraved, without us even realizing, in our physical gestures, our personal styles, and the look that comes from deep within our eyes

A keen observer, Prachakul approaches the complexity of identity and authenticity through the genre of figurative painting. Pop cultural depictions of Asian Americans are historically monotropic —often casting characters in secondary roles as perpetual foreigners, villainous adversaries, or meek members of the model minority. In contrast, Prachakul’s subjects are always leading figures, manifesting a vast range of personalities and emotional reg- isters. An exuberant young girl in costume. A stylish couple with cool remov- al. A mired and moody youth. Her story-driven subjects play a social and psychological role, reimagining the traditional framework of portraiture as a space to rewrite staid narratives and representational tropes. Sometimes a single figure is presented humbly against an abstract field of color and other times, they are surrounded by the intricacies of a dense, domestic backdrop. In each interpretation, Prachakul’s colorful and dynamic compositions dis- play a delicate attention to detail. Her paintings convey both an immediacy and depth that cast her subjects in a humanizing and intimate light rather than perpetuate their status as Other. There is a general sense of culture, taste, and intellect —a refined internationalism not typically displayed in American genres.

An accompanying exhibition catalogue will feature an essay by Xiaoyu Weng, Associate Curator at the Guggenheim Museum, New York and cura- tor of the 5th Ural Biennale for Contemporary Art, and an interview between the Artist and filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Make an Appointment

Sales Inquiries :

Hello@friendsindeed.art

A delicate portrait of friends interacting in a Berlin bar by a self-taught artist has won the 2020 BP portrait award at The National Portrait Gallery London.

Jiab Prachakul's Night Talk was picked as the winner by the judging panel, which, for the first time since 1997, had no representative from BP on it.

Selected from 1,981 entries, representing 69 countries, Prachakul's portrait was called "an evocative portrait of a fleeting moment in time", which gives a glimpse into someone else's life that is "beautiful, mysterious and alive". The judges also praised its bold composition and clever use of contrasting shapes. (source, The Guardian)