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.

Sweet Solitude comprises a selection of paintings from the past five years, presented in a sequence that loosely mirrors Prachakul’s own journey as an artist. Having lived in Europe for much of her adult life, her paintings are often inflected with her desire for connection amidst a feeling of displacement, a sense of romantic longing pervading throughout. Her muses, often from the Asian diaspora, include close friends whom she paints repeatedly, and fellow artists, such as filmmaker and artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul and author Ocean Vuong, whose portrait she produced especially for this exhibition. The final section of the exhibition centers on the importance of place in her work, with a new painting that finds inspiration in the waterways in Austin as they resonate with her home in Vannes, France and connect to the memories of her childhood growing up along the Mekong River in Thailand. Prachakul is the recipient of the 2020 BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Jiab Prachakul: Sweet Solitude is curated by Alex Klein, Head Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, The Contemporary Austin.

About the Artist

Jiab Prachakul (b. 1979, Nakhon Phanom, Thailand) is a figurative painter who lives and works in Vannes, Brittany, France. Prachakul explores issues of identity and the human experience in her works, which depict scenes of figures in contemporary urban settings—bars, restaurants, hotels, and artists' studios. Her work focuses on representations of the Asian diaspora, filling in an absence in the Western canon of visual depictions of Asian peoples. Within each scene, a narrative unfolds: elements of personality are revealed, while Prachakul's attention to detail in clothing adds to a sense of hyperrealism and the specificity of the moment captured.

Prachakul is a self-taught artist who studied film at Thammasat University in Bangkok before living in London and Berlin. She began painting in London, after seeing a 2006 David Hockney exhibition of paintings and deciding to teach herself how to paint the human form. In 2020, Prachakul won the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Her first solo exhibition, 14 Years at Friends Indeed Gallery, San Francisco (2021), paid homage to the fourteen years spent working as a portrait painter in near-obscurity.

Acknowledgements

Leading support for Jiab Prachakul: Sweet Solitude is generously provided by Pamela and David Hornik. Additional support provided by Micki Meng and Timothy Taylor.

The Contemporary Austin’s Exhibition Program is supported in part by Malú Alvarez, Rachel and Jeff Arnold, Bettina and Brian Barrow, Adrienne and Christopher Bosh, Suzanne Deal Booth, Debbie Dupré and Richard Rothberg, Kathleen and Christopher Loughlin, Chris Mattsson, Danielle Nieciag and Brian Sharples, O’Shaughnessy – Rivers Family Fund, Zarmeena Vendal, and anonymous donors. Exhibitions and programming are also made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Still Water Foundation, Every Page Foundation, and Stratus Properties.

The Contemporary Austin is supported by the generosity of its Board of Trustees, members and donors, and the citizens of Austin through the City of Austin Economic Development Department, Cultural Arts Division.

Press Release

The Contemporary Austin Announces Spring 2025 Program

The Contemporary Austin Presents Jiab Prachakul: Sweet Solitude