Youthapong Charoenpan

Driven by his interest in faith, nature, religion and the world at large, Paramat Lueng-on's latest exhibition – Dimension of Faith – will open on July 8 at Gossip Gallery & Café.

Paramat majored in Thai art from Silpakorn University, Bangkok's premier educational institution for the study of fine arts, and has since been exhibiting his work in Thailand and throughout the region.

Paramat has gained a good deal of recognition not only within the Thai art scene, but also overseas, having had his work shown in numerous international art exhibitions, including the Art for Nature exhibition at NN Gallery in Kuala Lumpur (1998), a special exhibition based on the theme of Buddhism at the art gallery of Wong-Kwang University in Korea, and the Thai Expressions in the City Exhibition at the Two Allen Center and Houston Art Institute in Texas. Paramat's work was also featured in the second Association of Southeasst Asian Nations (Asean) Symposium of Painting and Photography, which toured Southeast Asia in 1991.

The latest display of Paramat's work in Bangkok focuses on his personal interests. The titles of several of his paintings (acrylic on canvas) – Inside and Outside”, “Sound, Voice”, and “Smiles” - also reveal the artist's interest in the human body, and in culture in general.

“Everything I see is part of culture and I would like to present a comparison of shapes: hands; a monk's face; eyes; a nose; a mouth, or any part of the human body. I consider these shapes to be like a 'universe'. Since the universe is composed of matter living together, we must try to understand the phenomenon of interconnectedness, and that there is always a cause and effect from our actions,” he has said.

Paramat is also influenced by Buddhism, as the following quote reveals.

“The Lord Buddha led all lives to proceed in a proper way, so we shall be free from all sorrow.”

The Nareephon tree
“A divine place, a paradise-like forest and a distant magical land can only be touched or seen through your imagination.”

Paramat uses his imagination through his craft to show us Himapaan Forest – a boundary between the real world and heaven, and a home to all manner of mystical plants and creatures. One of these plants – the Nareephon tree – bears fruit in the form of beautiful women.

This tree can be found in a story about the Buddha, in which he was meditating under one. The tree's “beautiful fruits” fell from its branches and tried to lure the Buddha away from his meditation. But one of Paramat's Nareephon trees doesn't focus on the female form, but rather some faces featuring beak-shaped noses. These are a common feature of Paramat's work and refer to people's greed and lust. Buddhists believe that to reach Nirvana, you need to gain merit while on Earth, and the images of humans with beak-shaped noses – through the eyes of the artist – suggest beings that have neglected their karma.