FROM MEMORIES OF HIS MOTHER TO ‘PRINCESS OF ANXIETY,’ AN EXHIBITION BY RATCH OSATHANUGRAH TRANSFORMS EMOTIONS, FEELINGS, AND IMAGINATION INTO A SHARED EXPERIENCE FOR VIEWERS
TEXT: PRATARN TEERATADA
(For Thai, press here)
The spare lines drawn across the large-scale works in Princess of Anxiety, Ratch Osathanugrah’s first solo exhibition at noble PLAY, Ploenchit, immediately catch the eye and set the mind in motion. The scenes unfolding across the canvases possess an almost childlike candor. Perhaps this is a particular place: cars travel along the ground, while flowers drift through the sky beside an upside-down house, inside which an enormous fish is wedged almost beyond its walls.
“My father was very fond of Impressionism and often took me to museums. I came to love this kind of art as well. As I grew older, I found that I could look at Marc Chagall’s work endlessly without ever growing tired of it. Van Gogh, meanwhile, stood out for the intensity of his paintings and the forceful movement of his brushstrokes across the canvas. Both became sources of inspiration for my own painting.”
Ratch Osathanugrah
Many of the world’s great artists seem content to dwell within the dream state of childhood and memory. They resist the passage into adulthood. They are beholden neither to realism nor Impressionism, geometric form, Cubism, or any other strict discipline. Freedom, instead, lies at the heart of an imagination set loose, no longer confined by realism or the monotony of the everyday world.
‘These works are about love, anxiety, strength, and moving through different periods of life.’ From his earliest memories, Ratch Osathanugrah has understood his mother through a complex spectrum of emotions. Here, he conveys those feelings through color, form, and imagination, inviting viewers into the experience alongside him. Vivid hues seem to shout over one another across the gallery, creating an immediate emotional charge. Episodes from the life of this princess of anxiety remain hidden in the spaces between the works, inviting viewers to search for and piece them together. Suspended at the center of the hall, a sculpture of the princess serves as the thread connecting the narratives contained within each painting. One cannot help imagining that, were it not for the physical limits of the gallery, the artist might have made the sculpture as large as a building. The story he wishes to tell carries immense emotional weight. Spend time with each work, and you gradually enter the artist’s private world, a place marked by disorder and resilience, yet warmed by the comfort of a safe haven buried deep within.
“Princess of Anxiety came about by chance. I had drawn a tall, stately figure who resembled a princess, and later added a crown. The title also reflects my mother’s life, as though she herself were a Princess of Anxiety.”
Princess of Anxiety by Ratch Osathanugrah is on view from August 1 to 22, 2026, at noble PLAY, Ploenchit.