Today as usual. I  am searching art. I found this one very impressed me. then i would love to show to your guy.'Self Portrait: A Man Who Admires Thai Art' 1982 Colour pen on photograph, Collection of Chongrux Chantaworasut, BangkokHis name is Montien Boonma. As one of Asia’s most gifted contemporary artists, Montien Boonma’s death in 2000, at the age of 47, was not only a great loss for Thailand but also for the international art community. His work explores the tensions and transformations between the rural and the urban, the traditional and the modern, and developed and developing countriesMontien Boonma: life and work Montien Boonma studied art in Bangkok, Rome and Paris and began exhibiting internationally in the late 1980s. Initially trained as a painter, he is best known for his sculptures and installations, which combine traditional and organic substances (such as herbs and spices, wax, gold leaf and lotus petals) with cement, steel and other industrial materials. Montien Boonma consistently searched for alternatives to conventional expressions in Thai art and looked critically at 20th-century art movements, including fluxus and arte povera.Boonma’s deepening belief in Buddhism drew him to the ancient concepts and symbolism of that faith, through which he found his creative voice. Herbs and healing practices played a central role in much of Boonma’s work from the 1990s when he lost close family members, including his beloved wife, to cancer, the disease to which he also succumbed.Many of his works are metaphors for hope, faith and healing, symbolising religious devotion and the possibilities of connection with the spiritual realm.BuddhismMontien Boonma drew increasingly, but not unquestioningly, on his Buddhist heritage and faith. In Buddhist teaching, sacred enclosures are cosmic centres of contemplation and concentration. Montien Boonma’s constructions embrace this concept and visitors are invited to physically enter many of his installations and sculptures. In these tactile and sensuous works, Buddhist spirituality finds contemporary expression. Boonma’s work includes references to different traditions of faith and, in the case of works inspired by a visit to Europe, incorporates Christian symbolism alongside Buddhist symbolism and architecture.

Loss and grief Much of the work in Montien Boonma: Temple of the mind was created during the last decade of Boonma’s life during a time when tragic events were unfolding for Boonma and his family. Boonma and his wife, Chancham, lived apart for ten years on the advice of a trusted Buddhist monk. It was during this time that Chancham developed breast cancer. She subsequently died from the illness in 1994. Boonma himself developed a brain tumour and died in 2000, leaving a young son, 'Temple of the Mind' (detail) 1995 herbal medicine, wood, brass, Collection of the National Gallery of Australia**I better leave a link for you to check out again in detail and his art**http://www.nga.gov.au/Boonma/artonview.cfmAfter i read this and see his art. I feel very nice. I am proud to be thai.Have a nice day,kung

nice art!

and you should be proud to be thai!

Thank you for sharing 'temple of the mind' ka

Good stuff and yes! very proud to be one!

Night kha.

I like the first pic, it reminds me of my younger days when I was a budding artist, that was before my mum told me off for drawing on my face with marker pens. Just think what I could've achieved if I had been encouraged as a 3 yr old instead of punished.

I am proud to be thai too

and..we have to check up every year kha

very very cool na