22 November – 6 December 2025

Opening Reception: 22 November 2025, 6:00 – 9:00 PM.

18 – 31 October 2025

Lifescapes of Burma (Myanmar)

Art is a visual narrative that tells stories, allows self-expression, and offers different perspectives on the human experience. I have been telling stories about my own people for many years as a photographer and documentary film maker.

In 2019, I learnt and began painting, exploring another way of telling stories. All my paintings aim to represent life in Myanmar, capturing everyday scenes and people. I try to provide a window into the past as well as a view of the current reality in the country.

I travelled around Myanmar from 2015 to 2021 and met people in both urban and rural areas. For me, the countryside of Myanmar reflects the true spirit and culture of the nation. The lifestyle is a blend of natural beauty, agricultural practices, and long-standing cultural values.

When I was travelling in Myanmar, I brought my camera with me and took many photos, both landscapes and lifescapes. I focused on lifescapes because they go beyond likeness and into people’s daily life activities, revealing a rhythmic flow of activities and responsibilities that define our existence and who we are.

In Myanmar, daily life can vary greatly depending on geography, occupation, age and personal routines. Most people live simple lives, working as farmers, traders and craftsmen. Daily life in Myanmar is a colorful blend of tradition and spirituality mixed with the rhythm of rural and urban existence. Yet these elements are currently overshadowed by the significant hardship of ongoing conflict, natural disasters and immense displacement, which impact the livelihood and well-being of Myanmar’s people. For many, it can be a struggle to survive.

Despite these obstacles the people of Myanmar continue to endeavor to better their lives and, regardless of the difficulties, remain faithful to the routines in their daily lives so that hardship does not define who they are. Their lifestyle may be simple, but it is rich in culture, community spirit and deep respect for nature and tradition.

 Sai Kyaw Khaing

b. 1961, Larnkho, Southern Shan State, Burma

Lives in Australia, Thailand, Burma

Studied Master of Media Art and Production at University of Technology Sydney, Australia, Certificate of film, television and Radio production at Randwich TAFE college Sydney, Australia, and Advanced Diploma of Photography at Canberra Institute of Technology, Australia. Mandalay University, Burma.

Exhibitions

2019 – Moon Art Gallery, Yangon, Myanmar

Fine Art Nude Photographs & Painting

2018 – Moon Art Gallery, Yangon, Myanmar

Fine Art Nude Photographs

2003 – Canberra, Australia

Photojournalism

 Awards

Click in fear (The best Documentary)

The Art of Freedom film festival Yangon 2012

Lotus (Second Prize)

Nikon International photo contest 2012-2013

Strike with the beat (The Best Documentary)

VDP film festival Kyoto, Japan 2021

Gona Film Award, India 2021

19 July – 23 August 2025

Suvannabhumi Gallery is pleased to present Fossils, Bodies & Memories: A Child’s Universe, a series of drawings by 11-year-old artist Tun La Yaung, who explores the hidden structures of living things—bones, organs, exoskeletons—and non-living things—doors, bicycles, robots—with curiosity and wonder. Blending science and memory, the drawings invite us into a world where bodies become maps, fossils turn into traces, and unfamiliar shapes hint at things we’ve never seen before. In this small but vivid universe, prehistoric creatures rise from the earth, sea animals wave across the canvas, and bodies—real or imagined—take form through lines, dots, and planes of color.

Tun La Yaung was born in 2014 in Yangon, Myanmar. Like many other children raised in a family of artist and artisans he naturally grew up with the studio as his playground. He found joy in playing with pencils and brushes, lines and shapes, colors or tones, drawing or dripping. He has long been fascinated by dinosaurs—Tyrannosaurs, Triceratops, Velociraptors—as well as natural phenomena like sunny, breezy, and raining. He also enjoys shaping different moods and sensations: brightness, coziness, and boredom. His early works were largely inspired by memories and stories. Over time, his drawings began to reflect his own emotions and personal expressions. More recently, he has begun incorporating visual references into his work.

Tun La Yaung completed his primary education at Lumbini Academy in Yangon and is currently attending secondary school at Ambassador Bilingual School in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

7 – 17 June 2025

About the Artist:

Reyhaneh Afzalian (b. 1989, Tehran, Iran) holds a degree in Painting from the Islamic Azad University of Tehran. She began her professional artistic career in 2014 by participating in open calls. While drawing remains the foundation of her creative process, her practice expands across multiple mediums including painting, printmaking, installation, and land art. Afzalian has held two solo exhibitions and taken part in several group shows both in Iran and internationally. She currently lives and works in Tehran.

About the Exhibition: Earth
In earth: Reyhaneh Afzalian explores cycles of transformation rooted in tactile memory and lived experience. Her works are not born in the mind but through the hands-hands that shape and unshaped, give and take life, until experience is transferred into the raw essence of matter. Each piece emerges from the remnants of the previous, forming a cycle where creation and dissolution are inseparably intertwined.

Texture in this series is not merely surface; it is a medium of connection. Through touch, the artist reconnects with her own earthly origins. Plants appear not as decorative motifs but as vessels of deeper meaning-symbols of soil, minerals, decay, and regeneration. Life and death are universal states that move through us all. They are not opposites, but reflections. The repetitive gestures and earthy materials in Afzalian’s work narrate a quiet story of endurance of those who wait and take refuge in each other.

This exhibition at Suvannabhumi Art Gallery brings together both new and previously exhibited works. Some pieces were first presented in her solo show in Tehran and at Art Fair Position Berlin 2024, allowing viewers to trace the evolution of the series across different contexts and geographies.

25 January – 15 February 2025 

Totty Swe (b. 1979, Madaya, Myanmar) studied Fine Arts at the University of Culture, Yangon, in 1996. Around 1998, he embarked on a career as a designer in the publishing industry, eventually becoming a beloved cartoonist. Swe is one of the most prominent figures in the latest generation of Mandalay-style painters.

Totty Swe’s Recent Solo Exhibition, ‘Teta Watercolor’ (Myanmar Ahla Gallery, Yangon, Myanmar, 2023), ‘Shwe Yay Chel’ (Hotel Hazel, Mandalay, Myanmar, 2022), Group Exhibition, ‘Raing for a Moment’ (D-nakano Art Gallery, Yangon, Myanmar, 2024), ‘Sketching Walker’ (Blossom Art Gallery, Mandalay, Myanmar, 2024), ‘Missing Summer’ (Shwe Khit Oo Art Gallery, Yangon, Myanmar, 2024), ‘Heads and Tails’ (Lokanat Gallery, Yangon, Myanmar, 2023).

21 December 2024 – 11 January 2025

9 – 30 November 2024

14 – 28 September 2024

Kyaw Htoo Bala (b. 1992, Myanmar) is an artist with a multidisciplinary approach, delving into contemporary matters through his creative expression. He graduated in Fine Arts from Lasalle College of The Arts, Singapore in 2017. Bala’s artistic range encompasses painting, photography, printmaking, sculpting, videography, and digital art. In 2021, Bala founded Monologue Art Space in Yangon, Myanmar, providing a platform for artistic exploration and collaboration. His first solo exhibition took place in Yangon in 2017, and he was honored as a finalist for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize in Hong Kong in 2022. In 2023, his work was showcased in a group exhibition presented by Intersections at S.E.A Focus in Singapore. Currently, Bala works at his studio in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Selected exhibition: Group exhibition at Lokanat Gallery, Yangon, Myanmar, 2013. Solo exhibition ‘The Enigmatic Breakfast’ ,  at Myan Art Gallery, Yangon Myanmar, 2017. Group exhibition ‘The Sovereign Asian Art’, Nominated  at Art Central, Hong Kong, 2022. Group exhibition ‘S.E.A. Focus’,  at Singapore/Intersections Gallery, Singapore, 2023. Solo exhibition ‘The Scream of the Gecko’,  at Monologue Art Gallery, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2024.

About the Series ‘People, Flower, and Fish Bone’ is a recent series by Bala, inspired by his earlier work, ‘The Tales.’ In this mini-series, he contemplates the daily realities and events unfolding in his country. Bala uses flowers and fish bones as simple yet powerful metaphors to represent hope, the future, the past, and death.

17 August – 7 September 2024

6 – 28 July 2024

• Myat Wai (b. 1987 in Taungtwingyi, Myanmar)
• 2017: 1st solo show at Cloud 31 Gallery, Yangon, Myanmar
• 2021: 2nd solo show at M.P.P Gallery, Nyuang-U, Myanmar
• 2006: His poem were published
• 2021: The melancholy river
• 2017: Kywae

‘Home Again’ (Paintings and Poems) by Myat Wai

01.During the civil war in Burma, Chantha village Church was burned.
02. There is a village beyond fields. It’s lovely and warm but it’s might be there, now.
03. Kayah before the civil war, there were the broad fields which I wouldn’t think. The broad fields were changed into hay and made brown soil.
04. The lane goes between the urban and the country of Ywashay village.
05. There is a path near Minnanthu village. The path is my favorite place. It’s the wide and flat sky and the biggest rain clouds. There are many trees but only one shadow. The only one shadow is me. The picture is that place, adding my imaginations.
06. It is strength that sunlight shined over the size of the big volume cloud and the size of the volume wall. The sky was the blue of the rainy season. I liked the fallen tree that living in the agricultural compound as I had seen the morning sunshine which is glare beyond the views.
07. The Wall of the road for Minnanthu village in rainy season in Bagan- there is the most beautiful time in Bagan because of clouds and the full sunbeam.
08. Viewpoint on the Tharaba gate, Bagan.
09. Trying to run away from the stifling of the urban life, I have to re-enter through the place. The burned fields attracted me and I couldn’t help drawing.
10. Returning from Hsipaw – Shan State, I drew the views in my mind.
11. The sunset of Hsipaw from a downhill path.
12. My beloved family and I travelled towards the Andaman Sea also known as Burma Sea. Human being swims like a fish in the sea.
13. Family trip to May Myo, drawing selfie poses at Kandawgyi botanical garden – including sky, water, tree and a man.
14. ‘In the end, I’m alone’ (Kin Maung Yin) All the plains are yellow and the mountain is also yellow. And also, the sky is the golden color. There is a home alone. There is a dried dead tree, only it’s getting lonesome. Another world is golden color with a happy ending. Eventually, you will be only one.

15. Melancholy River

16. Is Paris burning?

17. 24 Seasons

10 – 24 February 2024

13 January – 6 February 2024

2 – 30 December 2023

27 – 30 November 2023

by 7 Korean Artists:

Keehyon Kim / Gileun Kim / Giheon Bae, Gyeongjun Min / Heidelberg Eum / Eui Jeong / Songchu Cho (Director)

28 October – 22 November 2023

15 July – 12 August 2023

11 March – 28 April 2023

In this exhibition, Narongyot has tried to spotlight the evidence of what is happening to the aquatic life by assembling the waste materials that he collected from the sea. The flock of rubber fish represents the inevitable drifting of the food chain in marine ecosystem where people consume the fish that were forced to eat sea debris left by human. These remnants perplex the sea dwelling creatures as they can no longer recognize which is food for them and which is not. They are nibbling on the man-made materials that used to kill their ancestors over generations. In the end the waves will bring back the evidences that we once dumped into it. Not to judge us. But to show us the truth.

4 February – 4 March 2023

12 November – 10 December 2022

20 – 27 August 2022

29 January – 28 February 2022

12 March – 1 April 2022

“Piti Sedthee was born in 1956 in Bangkok and currently lives and works in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He is known as a self-taught artist, and many of his works convey purity, honesty, freedom, and directness to the viewers. One source of inspiration for Piti’s “Disappeared Monalisa” series comes from newspaper photos and the faces of people featured in weekly magazines.

Many of his drawings portray the faces of people from media headlines, family members, sceneries from his imagination, and the shocking news he encounters daily.”

2 – 24 April 2022

1 May – 1 July 2022 

• U Bat Sat [b. 1980, Thailand, lives and works in Chiang Mai, Thailand]
• 2021​: Ph.D. Buddhist Studies, Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University Chiang Mai Campus, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
• 2007​: M.A. Philosophy and Religion Department, Faculty of Humanity, Chiang Mai University.
• 2003​: B.A. Painting, Faculty of Fine Art, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
• 2002: ​(out) Exchange Program, The College of Art, Hue University, HUE, Vietnam.

The Ballad of Myanmar Lu Myo

The chronicles of Myanmar and Theravada Buddhism began with the mentioning of two Mon traders who invited the hair of the Buddha to a small temple where it later became The Great Shwedagon Pagoda in modern days. During the 3rd Buddhist Century during the reign of Ashoka the Great, there had been dispatches of Buddhist missionaries to the land called “Suvarnabhumi” or Thaton, which is an important city in the lower regions of Myanmar.

The tales within the chronicles exhibit a reflection of trading routes in the Bay of Bengal for over 2,600 years. The routes are utilized for migrating people, especially the Mon and the Pyu who are among the first to settle in this area along Irrawaddy River. The rise of Bagan Kingdom in 13th Buddhist Century marked the beginning of nation state and unity, as well as the continuity of many different ethnic groups such as Pyu, Kachin, Tai Yai, Chin, Rakhine, Kayah, Kayin, Mon, and small tribes dispersed within the land for over long periods of time. Diversity brought conflict and fighting to the people of different races in Myanmar history. Mongol Empire invasions coupled with constant warring with neighboring states like China and Ayothaya shows as if the people in Myanmar were cursed to dwell in on-going war throughout a lifetime.

Then, the English colonialism arrived in 19th Buddhist Century. It brought forth major changes in the country including the collapse of monarchy system, changes in the form of governance, changes in political institutions and economy. In turn, this drove Myanmar to become modern under the name “British Burma” between 1824 – 1948, over 124 years of being colonized by England before gaining full independence on January 4th, 1948. Despite external threats cleared off, internal turmoil once again brewed up. The echo of gunfire heard on the parliament secretariat building and the death of General Aung San in the morning of July 19th, 1947, took the country to its darker depths. The rise of General Ne Win, who transformed the country into a Socialist Republic (military dictatorship) and halted the country like a hermit in asceticism, severely affected the people and its economy. Shortly after, Myanmar turned into one of the poorest countries in the world. Starvation and poverty forced the people to fight back. The major protest in 1988, the Saffron Revolution in 2007, and the latest anti-coup d’etat in 2020 up until today caused many deaths and imprisonment of its people like never seen before. No sign of it being over and no one could tell how the political conflict will come to resolution.

“Burmica” is the work of U Bat Sat, a contemporary artist who is in the habit of delving into the long history of Myanmar, especially the history of people and the many different ethnicities. He seeks to understand and learn about existence in diversity, particularly the history of neighboring countries that is often portrayed as the antagonist in the textbooks by the Ministry of Education in Thailand.

A painting of 2.4 x 8.40 m. which tells the tales and life stories of the little people of different origins, dispersed their habitats throughout the banks of Irrawaddy River. It is a rhythmic showcase of the history of people’s pain conflated with the history of political conflict in the country that is considered to have one of the longest historical roots in Southeast Asia.

16 July – 13 August 2022