Breaking new ground, S.E.A. Focus puts Southeast Asian art in the global spotlight

"For many artists in the region, the personal and political are deeply entwined. Sutima Sucharitakul, founder and Director of the Bangkok-based gallery Nova Contemporary, highlights Thai and Burmese artists in particular. At S.E.A. Focus the gallery will be exhibiting Myanmar-born, Netherlands-based artist Sawangwongse Yawnghwe. His grandfather was Myanmar’s first elected president, who was assassinated during a military coup in 1962, after which his family was driven into exile. The oil painting Aung San and U Raschid (2017) draws on a historic photograph of the prominent Muslim student activist U Raschid, who held several ministerial positions, with his friend Burmese independence activist and revolutionary General Aung San (the father of Aung San Suu Kyi). Yawnghwe painted the work as a statement of acceptance of the Rohingya people and one of protest against the persecution of their community that began in the country in 2016. As the violence against the Rohingya people continues, the work resonates strongly today. Eschewing the accepted historical narratives often unpacked by contemporary artists in the West, artists such as Yawnghwe are unearthing critical fragments of their past and creating a valuable archive of counter-histories that have been deliberately erased."