SCAF – Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation

Collection+: Pinaree Sanpitak, curated by Jasmin Stephens, marks the third iteration of SCAF’s Collection+ series.

Collection+ is conceived as a hybrid project with a specific cross-pollinating purpose. Some 800 works in The Gene & Brian Sherman Collection are scrutinised and assessed by invited curators working in partnership with SCAF’s curatorial team. Each curator selects a single artist from the collection and researches collections nationally and internationally in order to identify significant related works by the same artist.

Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak is a leading figure in Southeast Asian art. Her diverse body of work has its origins in her feeling for the female form and reflects her engagement with a breadth of materials – painting, drawing, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, performance and the culinary arts.

Pinaree Sanpitak was born in 1961 in Bangkok and studied visual arts and communication design in Japan. In 2013 she presented solo exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and at The Contemporary Austin in Texas, and was featured in the group exhibition, Female Power, at Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem (now Museum Arnhem) in the Netherlands. Her immersive installation Anything Can Break (2009), was seen at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney as part of the 2012 Sydney Biennale. Her work is held in private and institutional collections in Australia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and the United States and her exhibition history has encompassed biennales in Australia, Italy, Japan and Korea. Collection+: Pinaree Sanpitak will be the first solo presentation of her work in Australia.

Jasmin Stephens is a Sydney based independent curator. She has held audience development, programming and curatorial roles in many institutions including Fremantle Arts Centre in Perth, and in Sydney; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum of Contemporary Art and Artspace. She has recently been a Visiting Curator and Asialink Arts Management Resident with the Singapore Biennale and undertaken a curatorial residency with The Reading Room in Bangkok. In 2014 Jasmin Stephens is also curating with UTS Gallery, University of Technology, Sydney, and working with artist David Haines as a curatorial participant on the Kuandu Biennale at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan.