Artist: Pinaree Sanpitak

Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, presents a solo exhibition by Pinaree Sanpitak, her first with the gallery and first in New York since 2017. Entitled Fragile Narratives in reference to the personal and profound experiences of womanhood conveyed by the works on view, and the serenity and sensitivity with which Sanpitak handles them, the exhibition presents new paintings and sculptures. The works on view exemplify Sanpitak’s visual language, innovative use of material, and unflinching endeavors to represent through her practice her experiences of womanhood and the connections between the bodily, self, spiritual and sacred.

In a selection of new paintings from the Womanly Bodies series, Sanpitak employs mawata silk to create dimensional and sensual forms that call to mind the feminine body. In these monochromatic paintings, a pearlescent background juxtaposes the natural fiber, deftly merging the aesthetic with the organic. Other paintings on view depict the recognizable forms of breasts and vessels, rendered in the artist’s distinct minimal style that reduces them to their most basic essence, continuing her captivation with the body’s wide-ranging potential across the sacred and profane. With a palette largely consisting of shades of grey, Sanpitak uses varying opacity to create depth in her compositions. In one such work, Body Drops (2023), subtle variations in tone and texture distinguish Sanpitak’s forms from the background; these breast-like forms are in turn covered by a shape reminiscent of those found in the Womanly Bodies series, rendered in pencil hatching.

The smaller gallery space will be enlivened by works from Sanpitak’s Balancing Act series. Sculptures composed of painted water vessels and mulberry paper move lightly atop kinetic bases. Vibrantly colored and worn, Sanpitak places these utilitarian objects in a jovial context; should these containers be full, their constant movement would cause them to spill over. As they delightfully engage the sense of sight, the vessels also appeal to the ears as the motors of the bases create a soft but insistent sound. Balancing Act epitomizes Sanpitak’s ongoing interest in rendering unfamiliar the familiar through abstraction and movement.