17/06/2026
Tawan Wattuya – Money
Opening on Wednesday, 24 June at 6 PM
Exhibition on view from 24 June – 29 August 2026
Nosbaum Reding Luxembourg
2, Rue Wiltheim
2733 Luxembourg
—
Through watercolor and oil paint, Tawan Wattuya creates an aesthetics that arouses, excites while colliding with the senses, terrifying viewers, but also tickling them with caustic humor.
A graduate of the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture, and Graphic Arts at Silpakorn University, Wattuya has exhibited widely both in Thailand and internationally.
Wattuya's portraits and paintings are inspired by real people in the pop culture, whether it be beauty queens, stars and celebrities, politicians, or superheroes from cartoons and films, and of common people from all walks of life he met along his way, as well as records of events, both national and international alike. All these familiar social signifiers are recreated and transformed in a way that they become fluid, shredded, broken, blurred, diminished, expanded, and accentuated. The public icons with strong background stories are presented with divergent perception. Their imageries embedded deeply in popular recognition are altered, though not without familiar traces. These signifiers induce the spectators to envision some signs of truth hidden under watercolor or oil paint brush strokes in expressionist styles.
As for his Money series work, Wattuya recreates and vivifies banknotes from all over the world by painting enlarged versions of them in watercolor, preserving the characters of each currency but letting the fluid properties of the watercolor forge new images. The blurriness, ambiguity, and beauty of these metamorphosed banknotes reflect the transformation of the world that is turning these banknotes into mere paper.
—
Tawan Wattuya,
500 Francs, 1963, 2024
Watercolor on paper
100 x 200 cm
Photo credits © Courtesy of the artist