'Preconceived Nomad' show pushes boundaries

'Art is a perception of mind," reads the brochure to "Preconceived Nomad", an exhibition of oil paintings by Amnad Vashirasurt. The new paintings, it continues, set out to explore "the mystery hidden within the idea of creativity and faith in life", and they do a strong job of exploring the impressions that can be presented, and emotions explored, through an artist's personal touch.

The colourful explosion scenes, Black Suit and Sand Mine Field, are inspired by the Iraq war film The Hurt Locker, and while the concept of motion is well rendered, the exploration of the subject seems to lack depth, reminiscent almost of a video game.

More powerful are the paintings that probe spatial atmosphere. A good example is The Mist Princess, a blurred image in grey and white of a woman moving through the woods. The entire painting conveys motion and transience, despite the fact that it's austere in its use of colour and detail.

Another painting simple in mood, approach and execution is Hide Angel Wings, where a house in light sandy brown is visited by an angelic figure in white.

In contrast, Orange Wood and The Last Summer, pure orange and red respectively, are vibrant in colour but perhaps less effective.

Best are the Chagall-like landscapes such as the title piece, Preconceived Nomad, or others where motion is touchingly rendered, such as Pool in My Heart, which portrays a swimmer moving across an indoor pool.

Amnad explained that many paintings were inspired by a recent trip to Europe, specifically Hungary and France, and it's clear that the main artistic influences are European. Amnad admitted that Marc Chagall is a major inspiration, something apparent from the choice of colour, if not necessarily the subject matter. But the sense of the nomad in many of the paintings, an explorer of inner and outer territories, is very personal, poignant and relevant.

The paintings move anywhere between Impressionism and post-modernism, and it is encouraging that abstract Thai art seems ever more confident in moving among genres, exploring both past and present art forms and increasingly competent at pushing the boundaries of new experimental forms.

One curator of a neighbouring gallery commented that this exhibition had less impact for him than Amnad's first and very successful exhibition at Artery Gallery in 2009, "Imagery Region".

Nevertheless, the new series is, as art director or Artery Gallery, Punnapa Parimethachai, commented, "deep, pronounced, intense and delicate". Some of the experiments in feeling and impressions work better than others, but as a whole the paintings are very effective at taking us through Amnad's perceptions of his nomadism, preconceived or accidental, and back into our own.