"Military aircraft gently bombed southern Thailand with 100 million paper birds...in a gesture intended to promote peace in mainly Muslim provinces where more than 500 people have died ...in attacks by separatist militants and countermeasures by security forces."

The artist grew up and worked in the southern province of Phang-Nga, where Muslim insurgency has been a continuous trend for many decades. Interestingly, he is not a graduate of any art college, but was trained by a painter of movie posters - quite an intricate art form in an age when digital printing was not the order of the day. Pearapong's teacher recognized his potential and predicted his success. Small wonder that at a young age, Pearapong started to design book covers, and to paint full-time after moving to Chiang-Mai, an ideal setting for artists.

Pearapong has participated in exhibitions since 1991, including several prestigious national ones. He has won several awards, including prizes for postage stamp designs. In the past few years, his paintings have dealt with light, peace, and healing, as the images in this post indicate.

The brochure for the exhibition "Silent Wish" notes:

"Dramatic and monochromatic, Pearapong is an artist who has proven with his collection that even during vicious, ongoing war, art can convey a call for something as intrinsic as peace, with beauty, imagination and elegance, all in a silent breath."

This is quite an apt description. Art has always been relevant to the human condition and is a primordial expression of peace and hope. 

Across Asia, experiments in art are surprising conventional critics as new genres and mediums truly reflect a region coming of age. Thailand is no exception to this trend. Artists such as Pearapong are confirming the relevance of art to a tolerant society.

The author would like to acknowledge that the images above have been borrowed from the website of the Rama IX Art Museum Foundation.