Welcome Back

Timothy Taylor is pleased to present Welcome Back, an exhibition of new paintings by Thai-born, France-based artist Jiab Prachakul, on view from 5 June through 11 July in London. This marks the artist’s debut solo exhibition in the UK and follows her first solo museum presentation at The Contemporary Austin. Bringing together nine new canvases, the exhibition considers memory, distance, and presence through depictions of those closest to the artist.

In her luminous autobiographical paintings, Prachakul portrays her community and surroundings in quiet scenes shaped by close observation and restrained emotion. She paints herself, her husband, and friends—many of them designers, artists, and musicians of the Asian diaspora living in Europe—with a strong sense of familiarity, which, as the artist notes, “invites us into a series of longing conversations with a circle of my close friends.” These figures are often set in quotidian environments, such as street corners, living rooms, and along urban waterways, and are bathed in a warm, ambient light. This glow lends the scenes a subtle romanticism, heightened by Prachakul’s attention to pattern and her sensitivity to the way clothing frames the body. As in the work of Alice Neel and Lucian Freud, familiar figures recur throughout her paintings, allowing relationships to unfold over time.