Join us for a lecture by Gridthiya Gaweewong, a prominent and seasoned Southeast Asian curator, Artistic Director of the Jim Thompson Art Center (Bangkok), and a member of the Finding Committee for Artistic Direction of Documenta 16 (Kassel, 2027). She is also a guest expert for APD’s Curatorial Practice Course Tầm Tã 2025 in Hanoi.

In this lecture, Gridthiya will reflect on her curatorial journey, shaped by working across alternative spaces, artist-run initiatives, and larger institutions in Thailand and beyond from the 1990s to the present. Throughout this period, she has embraced a “shapeshifting” approach to curatorial practice — moving between grassroots contexts and formal structures, responding to the needs of each project and moment. She will share personal experiences of how curatorial strategies and methodologies have evolved, shaped by collaboration, negotiation, and a commitment to fostering critical dialogue within the contemporary art landscape.

An important part of the talk will focus on the shifts within Thailand’s art ecosystem over the past three decades: the rise of new independent spaces, the transformation of institutional roles, and the growing importance of socially engaged and context-responsive practices. It will also highlight how these changes offer both challenges and opportunities for curators and artists alike.

“Drawing parallels between the Thai and Vietnamese art scenes, I will also touch upon shared concerns that continue to shape our practices — questions of identity, cultural memory, social transformation, and the reimagining of indigenous knowledge in contemporary frameworks. By weaving together personal insights, project case studies, and broader cultural observations, I hope to open a conversation about how curatorial practice can remain adaptive, critical, and deeply connected to the communities it engages with. Together, we can explore how art and curating in our region continue to carve new spaces for reflection, resistance, and imagination.”

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Gridthiya Gaweewong was born in Chiang Rai in 1964 and grew up in Chiang Mai. She received her Master of Arts in Art Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois and Doctor of Fine and Applied Arts, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. She co-founded Project 304, an alternative art space in Bangkok from 1996 – 2002.

Her curatorial projects have addressed issues of social transformation confronting artists from Thailand and beyond since the Cold War. Gridthiya has curated various regional and international exhibitions including Under Construction, Tokyo Opera City Gallery and Japan Foundation; Forum Japan (2003). She has co-curated with regional curators on several occasions, including ‘Politics of Fun’, an exhibition of artists from Southeast Asia, with Ong Keng Sen at Haus Der Kulteren der Welt, Berlin (2005), with Rirkrit Tiravanija on Saigon Open City, Ho Chi Minh City (2006) and with David Teh on Unreal Asia, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival (2010). She curated Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s The Serenity of Maness at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Chiangmai, which toured to Asia, Europe and USA (2016-2019) (Commissioned by ICI, New York); and served as curatorial team for Imagined Borders, the 12th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea (2018). A 2018 fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership, MoMA, New York, Gridthiya is also a member of the acquisition committee for the Singapore Art Museum since 2020.

She was awarded the French Ministry of Culture’s Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2023, and Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence from Bard College (CCS Bard) in 2025. Recently, she serves as a member of the Finding Committee for Artistic Direction of Documenta 16. She lives and works in Chiang Rai and Bangkok, serving as an Artistic Director of the Jim Thompson Art Center.