Why I’m betting on Bangkok for the future of contemporary art
Recent years has seen an increase in the number of artistic institutions in Bangkok. And for creatives looking to make something new, there is more to come in 2026.
Bangkok isn’t getting a Sotheby’s or a Christie’s any time soon but perhaps that’s its strength. For anyone who is fed up with the art world’s obsession with sales, auctions and the cavalcade of confusingly named fairs, Bangkok could be a good base for the year to come.
While Thailand’s relatively high customs duties make it tricky to trade artworks, this lack of pressure and international institutions has freed up curators, gallerists and talented artists to pursue their work in their own ways. And a spate of independent new openings tells its own compelling story.
DIB Bangkok, a private museum of the late business magnate and musician Petch Osathanugrah’s stellar collection, opens in December. Many top global art institutions are flying in for a visit and it’ll now take you at least three busy days to get a sense of what’s going on in Thailand, rather than an overnight stay.
“Here, everyone and everything has an experimental spirit,” says Gridthiya Gaweewong, the director of the Jim Thompson Art Center and founder of Project 304, an independent art organisation. “Bangkok has become an exciting place for the arts community not only in Southeast Asia but around the world.” Gaweewong compares today’s buzz to that of the 1990s, when a wave of Thais returned from abroad to set up art spaces – only this time the happenings are far better funded and more visible.
Along with its satellite space on Soi Sukhumvit 26, the main DIB building, which was designed by Los Angeles based Thai architect Kulapat Yantrasast, arrives at a busy time for the city’s cultural scene. The Bangkok Kunsthalle opened in January 2024, while its sister venue, Khao Yai Art Forest, a sculpture park three hours’ drive northeast of the city, unlocked its gates in February 2025.
The coming year is expected to hasten the trend: 2026 will see the addition of Decentral, an art centre based in a former denim factory in the city’s busy Watthana district, with a mission to “challenge assumptions”. “I’m very excited about the future,” says Gaweewong. “I’m very curious.”
James Chambers is Monocle’s Asia editor.
