SUPERFLEX สาธารณะสังคม

Solo Exhibition by Sumalee Ekachonniyom

Curator: Mantana Apidet

Exhibition Period: 9 – 30 July, 2025

SUPERFLEX is the latest solo exhibition by Sumalee Ekachonniyom, whose works reflect her personal experiences living through the analog era, a time when artists created with their minds and hands, through to the digital age, where the emergence of artificial intelligence has made it possible for artists to generate work simply by issuing commands to a machine, without physically making anything themselves.

Though Sumalee questions the role of the artist in a society so saturated with advanced technology, she remains unwaveringly honest and committed to her own feelings, continuing to create her work day in and day out. This dedication is powerfully conveyed in her artistic statement:

“I write the unheard voices, the voices of the small and the overlooked, to whom we are all somehow connected, whether we know them or not, whether we’ve met them or never will. The encounters, both genuine and simulated, have created a public space for conversation, for exchanging feelings, opinions, and even for questioning contemporary social life. A society fraught with tension, ambition, power, and vested interests.

I draw to create inner calm. To reflect on both the tangible and intangible experiences.

To explore the bittersweet realities, the contradictions, chaos, and the silenced truths, through voices that no one listens to. With the intent of writing and drawing beyond idealized beauty, to let real life express itself, and to imagine together the future days of our society.”

Sumalee Ekachonniyom is a painter from Roi Et province, Thailand. She studied at the College of Fine Arts, continued her education at Chulalongkorn University, and later earned a degree from Sorbonne University in Paris, France. She held her first solo exhibition in 1996 and has continued to create consistently ever since, exhibiting both domestically and internationally. She also taught art for 19 years at the Bunditpatanasilpa Institute and is now a full-time independent artist, spending most of her time painting. She once told a close friend “Painting is the greatest reward I give to myself.”