{{short description|Thai-American artist and actor (born 1964)}} {{use dmy dates|date=September 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Michael Shaowanasai | native_name = ไมเคิล เชาวนาศัย | native_name_lang = th | image =Michael_Shaowanasai_cropped.jpg | image_size = 220px | caption = <small>Michael Shaowanasai presents his film, ''The Adventure of Iron Pussy'', at the Amersterdam Asian Film Festival.</small> | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1964}} | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = {{hlist|Artist|actor}} | alma_mater = {{ubl|Chulalongkorn University|San Francisco Art Institute|Art Institute of Chicago}} | spouse = | parents = | children = }} '''Michael Shaowanasai''' ({{langx|th|ไมเคิล เชาวนาศัย}}) (born 1964) is a Thai-American artist and actor who lives in Bangkok, Thailand. His works includes performance art, photography, video, film and installations. Openly gay, his works are often provocative, such as photographic portrait of himself as a Buddhist monk made up to look like a woman. Active as an artist since 1997, his works have featured in international exhibitions since 1999, and his work is held in major collections.
==Early life and education== Shaowanasai was born in 1964<ref name="photofestival">{{citation |url=http://www.noorderlicht.com/eng/fest06/asian/shaowanasai/index.html |title=Michael Shaowanasai |access-date=2007-09-08| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114024137/http://www.noorderlicht.com/eng/fest06/asian/shaowanasai/index.html| archive-date=14 November 2007| website=Noorderlicht Photofestival 2006}}</ref> in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.<ref name=chancerybio>{{cite web | title=Michael Shaowanasai | website=10 Chancery Lane Gallery | url=https://www.10chancerylanegallery.com/artists/main/michael-shaowanasai/biography-en/ | access-date=24 September 2021}}</ref>
He graduated from School of Law at Chulalongkorn University in 1985,<ref name=interview>{{cite web | title=Interview: Michael Shaowanasai| first=Michael |last=Shaowanasai| website=Talking About Reproductive and Sexual Health Issues | url=https://www.tarshi.net/index.asp?pid=152 | access-date=24 September 2021}}</ref> earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at San Francisco Art Institute (which included filmmaking<ref name=interview/>) in 1994 and a Master of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996.<ref name=chancerybio/>
==Career== Shaowanasai is a founding member of Project 304, a contemporary art group based in Bangkok. Their work included the installation and performance ''Welcome to My Land... Come and Taste the Paradise'', and the performance ''Fresh Young Boys' Semen for Sale''.<ref name=interview/>
His solo shows include ''MS@OAS'', a photography installation at Open Art Space in Bangkok, as well as shows at the Fujikawa Gallery in Osaka, Japan,{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} Gallery 4A in Sydney, Australia, and Ottawa Art Gallery, Canada.<ref name=chancerybio/>
Shaowanasai, who is openly gay, ran the inaugural Gay and Lesbian Video Festival in Thailand in 2002.<ref name="photofestival"/> His 2003 photographic artwork, ''Portrait of a Man in Habits'', comprised a photograph of himself dressed as a Buddhist monk with make-up on to look like a woman. This caused an angry response from Buddhists, who tried to stop the photographs from being exhibited, to which he responded by showing the rolled-up photograph.<ref>{{cite web | title=Michael Shaowanasai | website=Noorderlicht | date=28 October 2007 | url=http://old.noorderlicht.com/en/archive/michael-shaowanasai/#act-of-faith | access-date=24 September 2021}}</ref>
Among his film and video works is the 2003 feature film, ''The Adventure of Iron Pussy'', which he co-directed with Apichatpong Weerasethakul,<ref name=interview/> a spoof of Thai movie musicals and melodramas of the 1960s and '70s.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} Shaowanasai portrayed the transvestite character of the title. The film was screened at several festivals, including the Tokyo International Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival.<ref name=interview/>
In 2008 he curated the exhibition ''Lifeboat #2551'' as part of the Sydney Biennale projects in Gallery 4A (now 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art). The exhibition also included video and film works by artists Wit Pimkanchanapong, Sakarin Krue-on, Tin Tin Cooper, Momokomotion, Manit Sriwanichpoom and others.<ref name=lifeboat4a>{{cite web | title=Lifeboat #2551: Contemporary Media Art from Thailand | website=4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art | date= 2008 | url=http://www.4a.com.au/lifeboat-2551/ | access-date=23 September 2021}}</ref>
Shaowanasai was awarded many residencies between 1997 and 2005, including at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada; New Delhi, India; Paris, France; Columbo, Sri Lanka; and Hokkaido, Japan and at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, New Zealand.<ref name=chancerybio/> He has given guest lectures at a number of other institutions on topics such as fine and applied arts, gender studies, philosophy, religion and anthropology, at his alma maters Chulalongkorn University and the school of The Arts institute of Chicago; Emory University, Atlanta; Rijksakademie, Amsterdam; Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; the Elam School in Auckland; and the University of California at Santa Cruz.<ref name=bab>{{cite web | title=Michael Shaowanasai | website=Bangkok Art Biennale | url=https://www.bkkartbiennale.com/artist/Michael-Shaowanasai | language=la | access-date=24 September 2021}}</ref> ==Acting== As an actor, he has a featured role in the 2006 romantic-comedy ''Metrosexual'' and portrays a soccer referee in ''Lucky Loser''.<ref name=imdb>{{IMDb name|id=1488305|name=Michael Shaowanasai}}</ref>
In 2012 he starred in a Philippine-Thai Film entitled ''Suddenly It's Magic'' produced by Star Cinema.<ref name=imdb/>
==Collections== Shaowanasai's work is represented in several institutions, including the Singapore Art Museum.<ref name=chancerybio/>
==Selected exhibitions== In 2012, ''Radu Die: New works by Michael Shaowanasai'', was mounted at the H Gallery in Bangkok. His work has also been exhibited in Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America, including the following group exhibitions:<ref name=chancerybio/> *Venice Biennale (2003 and 2009) *''Asian Traffic,'' Gallery 4A, Sydney (2006) *''Art Connexions'', Goethe Institut, Berlin (2007) * ''Act of Faith - On faith and conflict, ecstasy and excess'', Noorderlicht, a photographic festival in Groningen, Netherlands (2007 and 2008) * ''Lifeboat #2551'', Sydney Biennale (2008) * "The Promenade des Homos" (2020), a photograph featured in the Bangkok Art Biennale 2020<ref name=bab/>
===Film festivals=== *Frameline Film Festival (2004) *Berlin International Film Festival (2004) * Singapore International Film Festival (2005) * Melbourne International Film Festival (2005) * Busan International Film Festival, Busan, South Korea (2010)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{cite web| url=http://www.hbfasia.org/southeastasia/thailand/exhibitions/identitiesversusglobalisation/ivg_cat/artist/ivg_michael.htm| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070810070908/http://www.hbfasia.org/southeastasia/thailand/exhibitions/identitiesversusglobalisation/ivg_cat/artist/ivg_michael.htm| title=Identities Versus Globalisation: Michael Shaowanasai| archive-date= 10 August 2007| date=10 Aug 2007 }} *{{IMDb name|id=1488305|name=Michael Shaowanasai}} *{{cite web | title=Michael Shaowanasai | website=4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art | date=20 August 2019 | url=http://www.4a.com.au/search/Shaowanasai/}} *{{cite web | title=Who's a Pussy?| website=The Art Center, Chulalongkorn University |author=Pholdhampalit, Khetsirin | date=2005 | url=http://www.car.chula.ac.th/art/past/001_michael.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050723073535/http://www.car.chula.ac.th/art/past/001_michael.html | archive-date=23 July 2005 | url-status=dead }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaowanasai, Michael}} Michael Shaowanasai Michael Shaowanasai Michael Shaowanasai Category:American gay actors Category:American gay artists Category:School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Michael Shaowanasai Michael Shaowanasai Category:American people of Thai descent Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:Artists from Philadelphia Michael Shaowanasai Category:American LGBTQ people of Asian descent Category:LGBTQ people from Pennsylvania Michael Shaowanasai