Ariana Chaivaranon is a Thai-born artist, curator, and museum professional. Chaivaranon has worked to cultivate connections between the public and global art collections, including the U.S. National Gallery of Art, the Beijing Palace Museum, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, the Hirshhorn Museum, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Harvard Art Museums, and The Frick Collection. Chaivaranon’s additional roles have included Vice President of the Board of the nonprofit artist-run Plug Gallery, member of Asia Art Archive in America’s 2020-2021 Leadership Camp, 2022 awardee of the ASEAN-China Young Leaders Scholarship, and 2024 participant in the ICI Curatorial Intensive Indonesia.
Chaivaranon’s publications on contemporary art appear in Art & Market, MoMA Post (NY), Southeast of Now NUS (Singapore), and Di’van Journal UNSW (Sydney). Chaivaranon’s artwork (painting, printmaking, sculpture) has been exhibited in venues including S.E.A. Focus (Singapore), Art Jakarta, Cartel Artspace (Bangkok), H&R Block Artspace (Kansas City), Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (Venice), and Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts (Cambridge). Chaivaranon holds a B.A. from Harvard University, as well as an M.A. from Tsinghua University, Schwarzman College.
Select Writing —
Underground | All Under Heaven: Mit Jai Inn and Ariana Chaivaranon, ed. Ariana Chaivaranon, trans. Jirat Prasertsup (Bangkok, Thailand: GALLERY VER LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, 2023). ISBN: 978-616-94361-0-2
“Cockroach NIMBY: Outdoor Curating in Thailand,” Art & Market, (2023). https://artandmarket.net/analysis/2023/8/8/cockroach-nimby-outdoor-curating-in-thailand
“What We Cannot Carry” [A Buddhist Reading of Rirkrit Tiravanija’s Untitled (rucksack installation) 1993], MoMA Post, New York: Museum of Modern Art, (2022) https://post.moma.org/what-we-cannot-carry/.
“The Horizon and the Holy: Re-imaging the Thai Monarchy Following the 2020 Protests,” Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia 6, no. 2 (2022): 219-259. muse.jhu.edu/article/871502.
“Improving Our Museum Labels Through A Harm Reduction Lens: Part 3,” Randi Korn & Associates (2021). https://keracollective.com/blog/improving-our-museum-labels-through-a-harm-reduction-lens-part-3
“The Poor Image and Royalty: A Battle Between Two Thai Pops,” ed. Alan Cruickshank, Di’van: A Journal of Accounts, no. 9 (2021): 106–23. Sydney: University of New South Wales. https://issuu.com/unswartdesign/docs/di_van_9.
Select Exhibitions —
Cockroach Reincarnate, A-Plus Works of Art, Bangkok, 2024, Solo.
All Under Heaven / ใต้ฟ้า / 天下, Cartel Artspace, Bangkok, Thailand. 10/21 – 12/24, 2023, Solo.
Flatfile, H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City, MO. 07 – 10/2021, Group.
Now You See Us, Crossroads Artboards, Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, MO. 10/2021 – 01/2022, Duo.
Out/Side/In, Vulpes Bastille Gallery, 1737 Locust St. Kansas City, MO. 10/01 – 11/21, 2020, Solo.
Look Me in the Eye: Portraits of Kansas City, curated by Elisabeth Kirsch and Mike Lyon. The Epsten Gallery, 5500 W 123rd St. Leawood, KS. 09/15, 2019 – 01/06, 2020, Group.
run riot: a PLUG Projects Salon, PLUG Projects, 1613 Genessee St. Kansas City, MO. 10/19 – 11/03, 2019, Group.
Back Pay, The Lemon Collective, 810 Upshur St. NW, Washington D.C. 02/2019, Group.
VES 2018 Senior Thesis Exhibition: Interface, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA. 04/27 – 05/27, 2018, Group.
Metropolis, Art of the International Center of Graphic Design, Monumentali della Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice, Italy. 01/14 – 02/28, 2017, Group, catalog.
Select Honors —
ICI Curatorial Intensive Indonesia 2024.
Art & Market, ‘Fresh Take’ writing contest First Prize winner, 2023.
SOUTHEAST OF NOW: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia, Emerging Writer Fellow, 2021 – 2022.
Asia Art Archive in America Leadership Camp: Other Racisms, 09/2020 – 09/2021.
Board of Plug Gallery, Kansas City, MO, 03/2020 – 08/2021.
Co-juror for the Kansas City Art Institute Annual BFA Awards, 05/2021.
Full Scholarship for The Figure in Marble, Carving Studio and Sculpture Center, West Rutland, Vermont, 05/2019.
Harvard College Recipient, Fitzie Foundation Grant, Cambridge, MA, 05/2017.
Albert Alcalay Prize, Harvard Visual and Environmental Studies Department, Cambridge, MA, 05/2018.
Council Prize in the Visual Arts, Office for the Arts at Harvard, Cambridge, MA, 04/2018.