Swimming in the mainstream

Swimming in the mainstream

An American gallery owner is doing his best to promote contemporary Thai art 

Almost 13 years ago, H Ernest Lee came to Asia with the dream of starting an art gallery. Having previously worked as a business manager in the wine industry in the United States, his experience on the professional side of art was limited to some management he had done for a friend back home in exchange for some paintings. 

 While some would question the wisdom of taking such a risk in a new business, Lee has thrived in what he sees as a booming art scene in Bangkok. What he lacked in planning and connections, he made up for in passion. Now, as the owner of H Gallery, located on Sathon Soi 12, he has worked with many of Thailand's foremost artists and shows no sign of slowing down, with programming planned to 2013.

Lee spoke to Life about starting a gallery as a complete unknown in Asia and how the art scene has changed in Bangkok in the decade he has been here.

What brought you to Bangkok?

I wanted to have a gallery. I wanted to go into the art business and make it official. I had some freedom in my life at the time. I thought that I would come to Asia, find work, be based here part of the year, take work back to the United States, have exhibitions in the United States, and build something there. That didn't work out.

Had you been to Asia previously?

When I made the decision to come and be based here, I knew the culture from history and school, but I'd never been. At first I came for two weeks and did a quick trip to get a sense of the region. My original idea wasn't Thailand. I assumed I would be working in either China or Vietnam, but it worked out to be here. It's just the way it evolved. I started coming here more, got enthralled with the art scene. I felt like it was kind of open and that I could do something here. Sure enough, I've been in business now since November 1999.

How was it breaking into the art scene in Bangkok?

At first, nobody had worked with me, and they didn't know me. I wasn't a known person. I thought maybe I should do some exhibitions here.

I started doing exhibitions in November of 1999. I showed art work in alternative spaces around the city. Eat Me was the first venue, and I also did things with the Meridian Hotel and BMW before I built up enough of a business to feel comfortable about investing money and finding a space and making it official.

(The exhibitions) became quite well known, quite successful in their own way. Not necessarily financially, but they became very popular things, the exhibitions and the opening parties, etc. It just developed from there. I ended up having to stay and do this. I wasn't ultimately meant to do this in the US, I was meant to do it here.

How did you go about finding artists for your early exhibitions?

I went to the universities. The big guys, who were already being shown at exhibitions, I went to all those as well. I got a good sense of what was going on in the city. I had a lot of time on my hands back then too, so I had time to go visit people, talk to people and see artists' studios. But the big guys were already taken by established galleries here. I felt like maybe it wasn't the best thing to do, trying to get them. I don't know that they would even have been interested in working with me back then.

So I went to the university and found artists who were free and clear, and their work was interesting, exciting and a little edgy. Now the bigger artists do show with me, but in the beginning it was emerging artists from the university.

How was the art scene in Bangkok different when you started?

The gallery scene was much quieter. We're talking about 10 or 11 years ago. There were several good galleries, but they were kind of hard to find if you were a person on the street. When I opened, mine was geared a little more towards westerners and expatriates living here, and maybe trying to be more of an international gallery based in Thailand. Now there are quite a few galleries. It's more organised on an international level. If you come here now from abroad and you want to see the gallery scene here, it's easy to do.

Why do you think it has opened up in this way?

There was a paradigm shift a few years ago about art. When I first came here, it seemed as though art was something at the university, something over there, it's own sort of world. It wasn't part of mainstream Thai culture. That's all changed in the last 10 years. It's now part of the mainstream. Artists, students and regular people will go to exhibition openings and galleries now.

That wasn't always the case. There was the art scene, and that was separate from fashion, or finance, and now they're all a little more blended than they were a few years ago. Art and exhibitions are much more fashionable.

Are there any particular movements you see a lot of in modern Thai art?

I'm more a part of the contemporary scene. I work with more contemporary artists. Over the past few years, more and more students have gone to art universities abroad. A lot of them come back and bring very interesting ideas. You've seen more of a change in the overall scene. It's more open minded, looking towards the west and trying to develop their own styles based in Thailand.

Do any particular Western styles seem to resonate with the Thai artists who are educated abroad, and get brought back to Thailand?

They don't bring back Western styles, necessarily. They go abroad and are educated and it opens their mind a bit. It takes them out of their culture. I can speak for myself, living outside of my culture, I have a different attitude about the United States now that I've been abroad. It's the same thing with artists. As artists, they're open-minded to begin with. They go abroad, they look back at their own culture, then they come back and come up with something.