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At Thrilling Bangkok Biennale, the Devils Are in the Details

Some 70 artists have work at 11 locations in the Thai capital. Monsters are everywhere. An angel is dead.

Shin Min's The Students (2026) on view in the Bangkok Art Biennale. Photo: BAB

Sam Gaskin Nov 3, 2026

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An elderly angel with white hair lies with her face down and wings up on the floor of the Bangkok National Museum . Made of fiberglass and silica gel by Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu , Angel (2008) went viral in 2015 when hoax posts on social media claimed that a real angel had been found dead.

Thailand’s capital city is known to locals as Krung Thep, the City of Angels, but at the fifth Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB), which opened last week, far more devils are present.

The biennale’s artistic director, Apinan Poshyananda , and its curators, Adulaya Hoontrakul , Rémy Jarry , Melanie Pocock , and Kulapat Yantrasast , are presenting works by 72 artists and collectives in 11 venues, down from 75 artists…