Photo courtesy of the artist
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (b. 1957, Trat, Thailand; based in Chiang Mai) is a Thai multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and professor whose practice is primarily built around video and film. Over a career spanning more than four decades, she has become one of Southeast Asia’s respected contemporary practitioners, known for her unflinching engagement with female identity, sexuality, mortality, mourning, spectatorship, and the presence of animals. Her works often approach themes of death and lament with quiet intensity, interweaving personal reflection with broader social and cultural inquiry.
Rasdjarmrearnsook received her BFA from Silpakorn University in 1986, followed by a Diplom für Bildende Künste from the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, Germany, in 1990, and the title of Meisterschülerin in 1994. Alongside her artistic practice, she has played a significant role in shaping arts education in Thailand, establishing the country’s first multidisciplinary art school curriculum. Her literary writings—marked by a highly specific and nuanced use of Thai vocabulary—form an important yet less internationally circulated dimension of her practice.
Bio and portrait courtesy of the artist’s studio.
Writing:
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook: The Bouquet and the Wreath, Art Asia Pacific, published online, Feb 17, 2026