Bangkok’s art scene hits just as hard as its food scene. Check out this week’s Koktail Kurated guide to 11 exciting events, exhibitions and markets across the city. 

Everyone knows Bangkok slaps when it comes to food, but its art scene hits just as hard. You literally can’t have a boring weekend here. Turn down any random alley or wander into a rundown building, and you’ll run right into something cool happening.

This week’s Koktail Kurated features eleven Bangkok events for anyone looking to mix things up. Whether you want to geek out over film cameras or embarrass yourself on a swing-dance floor, these spots are well worth breaking out of your routine for. 

The Road to the Golden Peninsula by Chaiyos Pinpradab

Dates: Now until 9 August
Venue: Bangkok Art and Culture Centre
Admission: Free

Featuring over a hundred film photographs in all their grainy glory, this exhibition by Chaiyos Pinpradab tells the story of his 150-day journey through Southern Thailand from September 2024 to January 2025. It’s a travelogue, except you don’t read it. From Pran Buri and Prachuap Khiri Khan to deep-south locations like Tak Bai, the journey explores the region’s cultural topography: how people live, how they fend for themselves and how they celebrate life. Shot on a Hasselblad XPan panoramic rangefinder in a wide 24 × 65 mm format, each frame reveals rich detail down to the individual grain. Who says film is obsolete?

Urban Collectibles 2026: Moving City

Dates: 7-9 August
Venue: The StandardX, Bangkok Phra Arthit
Admission: Free

Good art reflects the conditions in which it’s created, and Urban Collectibles seeks to do just that with its fifth edition. Taking place at The StandardX, the exhibition breaks away from the traditional white-cube gallery format by sprawling paintings and sculptures across beds and sofas. These art-filled living spaces offer a fitting contrast to Bangkok, especially Phra Arthit, a neighborhood that seems to move entirely at its own pace. Here, the artwork is designed to slow you down and let your imagination linger a little longer, offering a “point of stillness,” as the programme calls it. 

Song Wat Film Day: Craft & Indie Market

Dates & Time: 4-12 August, 10am-8pm
Venue: 100-Year-Old Gate Alley, Song Wat Road
Admission: Free

Analog photography and film seem to dominate this edition of Koktail Kurated, and Song Wat is having its moment, too. For a charming, historical street like Song Wat, film cameras are practically a necessity – iPhones can never replicate that organic graininess, and even film-simulating digital cameras often fall short. This market upholds the relevance of analogue, inviting you to explore, browse and eventually buy not just film cameras, but also cool gadgets, arts and crafts and vinyl. Basically, it’s a gathering of cool people who refuse to succumb to the sleek, smooth sheen of the digital age.

A Crafty Affair

Dates & Time: 14-16 August, 11am-7pm
Venue: Jim Thompson Art Center
Admission: Free

If you’re going to have an affair, make it a crafty one. No, we’re not talking about cheating, but a weekend market that brings arts and crafts to your lustful eyes. You can never have too many trinkets, after all. The Jim Thompson Art Center is the perfect spot to chillax and stroll through tables of wonderful curios with a light step. Food is, naturally, on the agenda too. It’s also a place to connect and enjoy the community-building side of chatting with local vendors. So go ahead and be your most artsy-fartsy self. Have zero shame.

Swing Partout: Lumphini Grand Ball

Date & Time: 23 August, 3.45-7pm
Venue: Lumphini Hall, Lumphini Park
Admission: Free (Pre-registration required)

Sometimes when life gets you down, it’s best to dance yourself clean. But some people are understandably averse to crowded pubs; they much prefer the meet-cute setting of their grandparents’ generation to dance the night away (also understandable, especially if you have a hankering for nostalgia and vintage moves). Jelly Roll Jazz Club brings a DJ-led swing night to the historic Lumphini Hall for one night only, with live musical performances from Yusu Jazz Band and The Swing Era Cadet, along with jazz talents from Japan, the UK and the United States. Don’t know how to swing? Worry not, because they’ve got you covered. You’ll have a handle on it in no time. As Ella Fitzgerald famously sang, it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. 

Happinail by Nail.o1

Dates: Now until 23 August, with workshops on Saturday and Sunday
Venue: MMAD – MunMun Art Destination
Admission: Free (exhibition), THB 777 per person (workshop)
Registration via: nail.01 on Instagram

When you think of the term ‘wearable art’, your mind is probably drawn straight to fashion, especially high couture. But what about nails? Easy to miss, but just as expressive. If you’re a manicure obsessive or simply looking for inspiration, this exhibition by Nail.o1 will make you feel right at home – or rather, in a nail salon, except focused on bold, beautiful creations instead of boring everyday manicures. The artist is also hosting workshops every Saturday and Sunday, inviting you to dive deeper into the art of nail sculpting and the essentials of UV resin. You even get to take your creations home as keepsakes. Most hands-on crafts produce art, but this one requires your hands on it – and then gets worn on your hands!

Open Market: Use Loop Repeat: Designed by Her

Dates & Time: Now until 23 August, 10am-10pm
Venue: Open House, Central Embassy
Admission: Free

In a world dominated by fast fashion, where throwing things away is seen as a sign of luxury, choosing to wear secondhand clothes acts as a form of resistance. It’s a stand not only against the ever-evolving cycle of short-lived trends, but also against the throwaway culture that sends used items straight into the void. Loopers – a platform dedicated to curating pre-loved clothing – is back with another edition of Open Market, letting you browse through their vast selection of wardrobes and rethink your approach to fashion. With talks and interactive sessions, it promises to be much more than a typical thrifting run. Sustainability is key here, but it’s already built right into the way we choose what to wear.

Under the Same Sun by Amnaj Wachirasurt

Dates: Now until 30 August
Venue: La Lanta @ River City Bangkok
Admission: Free

We all live under the same sun, but that sun is often obscured by the buildings and man-made structures surrounding us. This interference distorts nature, shaping what enters our field of vision – both central and peripheral. Veteran Thai artist Amnaj Wachirasurt explores this concept through his semi-abstract paintings. They remain semi-abstract because recognisable forms (such as birds) haven’t dissolved entirely, but are instead overlaid with impressionistic textures that signify this urban obstruction. A social critique of sorts, Amnaj simply captures what he sees: not pure, untouched Nature, but a version mediated and watered down by urban expansion and construction.

Difference and Repetition: Contemporary Thai Printmaking

Dates: 8 August – 26 September (Friday and Saturday)
Venue: CHOK MAA
Admission: Free

Taking its title from Gilles Deleuze’s seminal critique of Hegelian dialectics, this exhibition at CHOK MAA translates the French philosopher’s core thesis into visual form: that difference is born out of repetition, that the new emerges from the same. Here, that concept is applied to the printmaking process. Motifs and actions are repeated until novelty emerges with every palpable increment. With many artists involved, their visions are replicated time and again until something entirely new takes shape. These aren’t reproductions in the strict, narrow sense, but rather re-productions – the production of production, and the true creative engine of artistic experimentation.

Open Ground: ‘Mooring’ Curated by Thaphong Srisai

Dates: 24 July – 29 September
Venue: Bangkok Kunsthalle
Admission: Free

As the inaugural Open Ground project, the exhibition ‘Mooring’ rejects any notion of history as fixed or rigid. Instead, it explores how the act of mooring allows us to see history flowing in and out of established patterns and meanings, crossing boundaries and disciplines along the way. Curated by Thaphong Srisai, this group exhibition gives each artist a different point of anchorage. You can leap from one perspective to another in a single space, mirroring how history itself is not a linear march forward, but a multi-dimensional interplay of layers with countless ways to interpret and retell.

Retrotech Series: Player You

Dates: Ongoing, Friday to Sunday
Venue: bit.studio gallery, Slowcombo
Admission: THB 450 (Adult), THB 200 (Student), Free (Child)
Tickets via: https://ticket.bit.studio

Player You is the latest addition to the Retrotech Series, and as the title suggests, if you belong to the generation that grew up with joysticks rather than the Nintendo Switch, you’ll find a direct portal back to your childhood. Step inside to enter a world of gamified possibilities, where a character created in your own likeness leaps in and out of different realms. It’s about more than just playing a video game, though. Your imagination might take you to unexpected places, revealing surprising ways the game reflects your real life. After all, video games aren’t so far off from reality when you’re the main character in control of your own moves. Existential dread might ensue if you think a bit too deeply.