The oil paintings of Thai artist Piyaphach Jeeno transport viewers into a weightless world of childhood, relationships, and winter. Couples floating in surreal landscapes, the lonely longing for their loved ones, and Japanese references are all rendered in pastel colors contrasted against vivid reds and blues. It creates a soft but captivating escape from the brutal heat and chaotic streets of a tropical city like Bangkok.
In one scene, romantic crushes sit next to each other while staring straight ahead, dipping their toes into bright blue pool water as it snows heavily outside the window behind them. In another, a lone girl lays in pink waters as her clothes billow with the delicate ripples and she plays with the glowing surface around her hand. A student dressed in a winter uniform lays resolutely on a pile of snow placed into a bathtub, determined to experience colder weather.
Jeeno got his start drawing comics and he’s still an illustrator, frequently doing book and album covers. While working on his first comic, it dawned on him that he couldn’t draw women and he set out to change that by sketching nothing but them. To learn, he looked at the work of women artists, feeling that men tend to sexualize women when drawing them. He was inspired by the way simple, flat lines could still evoke a woman without much detail. Because of this influence, his work has taken on a traditionally feminine quality that he leans into.
Manga also holds a heavy sway over Jeeno’s paintings. The characters in his world are often dressed in Japanese uniforms and traditional clothes, their faces subtly resemble manga styles, and he’s fond of elements like cherry blossoms and onsens. Water and snow are other central elements of his pieces. The characters’ ears and knees glow red with the cold, lay in fresh white banks of pillowy snow, and float with no gravity in calm, crisp waters.
It’s hard not to look at Jeeno’s work and imagine entire stories behind each separate piece. They have powerful emotions and hint at distinct narratives. But he’s coy about revealing the meanings behind them, other than to say that they help him to express his emotions. Instead, he prefers you interpret them in your own way. He hopes that even if you don’t try and explain them to yourself immediately, that the paintings stick with you as you go about your day, tugging at your imagination and curiosity. Once you close this tab, they will do just that.
