Angels and Mara, the theme of Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB 2026), explores dialectical opposites between the realms of goodness and the undesirable. Angels derive from the Greek angelos meaning divine messengers. In Christianity, angels and cherubim are associated with attendants of God or spiritual beings. Some angels have specific names such as Gabriel or Michael. In the Bible, angels bring news, good or bad, to Abraham, Tobias and Mary. Angels also appear with bird wings, halos and divine light in Hebrew and Judaism. In Hinduism and Buddhism, angels are associated with devas, thep (celestial beings) and dharmapalas (dharma protectors). Mahadevas are higher-ranking celestials similar to archangels. Atman (inner self) is personal divine spirit. Dakinis and nang fah are female wisdom spirits that might be likened to angels. Apsaras are celestial nymphs associated with beauty, dance and music who inhabit in heavenly realms.
Htein Lin (b. 1966, Myanmar; lives and works in Kalaw)
Htein Lin is an artist, curator and writer from Myanmar. He trained in law and Anyeint (Burmese comic theatre). Involved in the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, he spent time in student refugee camps in India and on the border with China, before returning to Yangon in 1992 to work as a comic actor and visual artist. He pioneered performance art in Myanmar. In 1998, he was accused of opposition activity and detained until 2004. In jail he painted, improvising with found materials. Htein Lin moved to London in 2006, creating works that reflected his travels abroad and diasporic experience. He returned to Myanmar in 2013, and has lived in Kalaw since 2020. His practice explores Buddhist philosophy, memory and identity in the country's traditions and cultures. He has participated in exhibitions at Singapore Art Museum, Mori Art Museum, Queensland QAGOMA, Gwangju Biennale and Berlin Biennale, among others. A survey exhibition of his work was held at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 2025.
In Angels and Mara, Htein Lin presents three works. A chronological display of paintings from 000235 (1998-2004) records the isolation, longing, darkness and hope of prison life. Collectively named after his International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) number, the paintings reveal his creativity under confinement: monoprints made with syringes, toothpaste caps and plates, and finger-painted forms on prison uniforms and found textile. When I was a Lousy Millionaire (2022) revisits life in the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) in 1991-2, when Htein Lin was tortured and saw more than 30 comrades killed after a rupture between two rebel factions. Beginning with an account of the communal removal of headlice in the village where he grew up, the video draws a parallel to his first experience of body lice while chained in freezing mountain temperatures. In I'm no demon! I am Lokanat, angel of peace! (2010), Htein Lin depicts a troublesome ogre who struts around to show his power. When confronted by external forces, he suddenly seeks to present himself as Lokanat, the spirit of peace, with a paper dove in his hand and cymbals on his feet. The performance is a symbolic commentary on the military-dominated Union Solidarity and Democracy Party’s landslide victory in Myanmar’s 2010 general election, won under a new constitution that had given the military significant powers.
Sumi Kanazawa (b. 1979, Japan; lives and works in Tokyo)
Sumi Kanazawa’s artistic practice explores a timeless human paradox: that each individual is wholly unique, yet inescapably a part of a collective. Her work is deeply informed by a lineage of migration spanning nearly a century as Japanese Korean. Her work has been exhibited across the world in Listening to the Sound of the Earth Turning (Mori Art Museum, Japan, 2022), Erase and See (Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, UK, 2023), We, Such Fragile Beings (PODO Museum, South Korea, 2025) and Receiving That Day (Contemporary Art Foundation, Japan, 2025).
Drawings on Newspaper (2017–ongoing) is an installation of sheets from newspapers whose content Kanazawa has partly shaded over with pencil. Woven together to form a curtain, the drawings give the impression of a cosmic landscape populated by galaxies and stars. Made over a long period, they dismantle the linear timeline of society, creating a world where past and present coexist and float within the same space. The immense detail and scale of the work make apparent the huge quantity of news we receive through the media. The partial shading of the newspapers also raises questions about the reliability of their content. Marked intuitively, each drawing forms the artist's personal response to, and struggle to extract a singular meaning from the vast content of the newspapers. The installation at BAB 2026 includes drawings on Thai newspapers made over the past year. Through this display, visitors can glimpse events which have dominated local and national media, filtered by the artist’s hand.
Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB 2026)
29 October 2026 – 28 February 2027
Bangkok Art & Culture Centre (BACC)