Koi swim in a weightless space around Hindu goddess Ganga, who’s dressed in a Thai headdress and poses in front of a wall of circuit boards. Dharani is depicted with elven ears and long-flowing hair, surrounded by floating Orcas and abstract brush strokes. They’re dense pieces created in pixel style with bright but paired-back colors and as many sloping curves as sharp, boxy edges. This is the work of Nanpixelate, the alias that Thai artist Manatsawan Prasertying created specifically for this style of art.
Prasertying’s most recent pixel series focuses on a collection of goddesses from various religions and folklores blended freely with elements of each other’s cultures. She says it’s inspired by a natural comfort with painting women’s faces and a desire to portray powerful women in particular. She also grew up in a multicultural home and says her heritage is more Khmer than Thai, so she sees the similarities between them and tries to draw out the overlapping areas between various other regional cultures from East and South Asia as well. Their ancient histories and detailed styles are also just plain cool to look at and fun to work with.
Prasertying is a talented tattoo artist and works in various mediums but was drawn to pixel art specifically because of its nostalgic feel, which creates a comfort in viewers much like the traditional art that people have grown up around. She started experimenting with pixel art during the pandemic when she wasn’t able to do tattoos but when the Thai NFT scene was very healthy, and she’s continued growing as an artist within the medium even as the times change.
Pixel art and tattooing are very different art forms. Prasertying originally tried to combine them, since linework is her favorite part of tattooing, but the time-consuming process of building everything from tiny squares on human skin proved unfulfilling. While she respects the limits of physical mediums like inking, she also appreciates the freedom of digital forms like pixel art and enjoys both equally but for different reasons. It’s a big world out there after all.
