Things to do in Bangkok today

FV launches its first artist residency exhibition with new work by Deborah Metsch, created following a four-week stay in Bangkok. During her residency, the artist works closely with the Atelier Pichita team, exploring Thai textile traditions, local craftsmanship and contemporary design through research, experimentation and creative exchange. The resulting exhibition brings together collaborative pieces that sit between art and fashion. Rather than simply borrowing visual cues from clothing, Metsch develops a conversation with Pichita’s celebrated approach to embellishment and the female silhouette. Beading, fabric and structural details reappear as layered compositions, where transparency, texture and tension echo the rituals of dressing and adornment. May 24-June 20. Free entry. FV39. 11am-7pm

Yaowarat welcomes the Bangkok debut of Filipino artist and sculptor Jinggoy Buensuceso with Cosmic Bloom, an immersive solo exhibition taking over Luenrit. Known as one of the Philippines’ leading contemporary sculptors, Buensuceso builds large-scale installations from industrial materials, shaping them through an origami-inspired visual language that explores motion, tension and constant change. Spread across multiple levels, Cosmic Bloom follows a journey of entry, expansion and release. Here, sculpture becomes an environment to move through rather than something viewed from a distance. The result is a striking exploration of perception, consciousness and our place within the wider universe. June 4-July 28. Free entry. Luenrit Yaowarat. 9am-5pm

Bangkok’s humble flower garland takes on a new form in Stillness in Bloom, a solo exhibition by Taiwanese artist Yu Chuan Chang. Drawing on a sight found all over the city, Chang creates contemporary paintings that move between Eastern and Western artistic traditions while reflecting on beauty’s short life. His blooms stay forever at their peak, suspended in paint long after their real-life counterparts fade. Presented as a Garland of Eternity dedicated to Bangkok, the works weave together time, memory and emotion. Layer upon layer of pigment works almost like needle and thread, binding petals to canvas with quiet precision. If a garland’s meaning comes from accepting impermanence, Chang’s paintings offer a softer counterpoint: preserving one perfect moment and letting it linger. May 23-July 12. Free entry. Maison JE Bangkok. 11am-7pm

Cute, crafty and proudly DIY, PUBPEAB Zine Fair returns for its third edition with stacks of handmade books, indie publications and collectible oddities from artists across the community. This year’s theme, ‘The Zine Factory’, transforms the venue into a playful production line where visitors can experiment with making their own zines while picking up new techniques along the way. Fabric-printing specialists Studio2B and risograph masters Haptic Editions also join the programme with workshops and open sessions under the banner ‘The Make Space’. Fancy showing your own handmade publication? Applications for exhibitors are now open here, so aspiring zinesters should probably start scribbling. June 4-5. Free entry. GalileOasis Theatre. 11am-6pm

Factories, pipelines and scarred coastlines sit at the centre of this striking photography exhibition by Sukrit Patjuntadusit, which examines the environmental cost carried by Rayong Province. Human presence lingers quietly throughout the series, whether through industrial structures, contaminated water or damaged landscapes altered over time. What sets the show apart is Sukrit’s use of the ‘film soup’ technique. Wastewater gathered from real industrial sites becomes part of the film development process itself, allowing chemicals to stain, corrode and warp the negatives. Pollution doesn’t simply appear as subject matter here – it physically reshapes the photographs. A free documentary screening and discussion session also takes place on Saturday June 6 from 1pm to 3pm. Now-June 23. Free entry. 2/F, Fotoclub BKK. 11am-8pm

An entire Akha house now stands in the middle of Bangkok, carefully dismantled from a village in northern Thailand and rebuilt piece by piece inside an art gallery. Roof panels, woven bedding, timber floors and weathered household objects all carry marks of the people who once lived among them, quietly tracing a way of life that grows more fragile with each passing generation. The Akha are an Indigenous ethnic group whose communities are spread across the mountains of northern Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and southern China, known for their intricate textiles, spiritual rituals and deep connection to land and ancestry. In recent decades, migration, tourism and rapid development have reshaped many of those traditions. Through memory, craftsmanship and personal histories, The Preservation of Fire by Busui Ajaw keeps those stories alive a little longer. May 15-November 1. Free entry. Bangkok Kunsthalle. 2pm-8pm

Bangkok sees plenty of guest chef dinners these days, though few arrive with the kind of momentum Masque currently carries. Widely considered one of India’s most exciting restaurants right now, the Mumbai dining room heads to Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok for a five-day residency led by chef Varun Totlani, whose cooking pushes Indian flavours somewhere more contemporary without losing the roots underneath. The eight-course menu works through Thai ingredients, squid, clams, Thai wagyu and masala spices across the progression . There is also a one-night collaboration on 9 June with chef Weerawut ‘Num’ Triyasenawat, which already feels like the dinner people will start messaging each other about before seats disappear. 4-9 June. B4,950++ per person. Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok. Lunch 12pm-3pm (6-7 June), dinner 6pm-11pm (4-8 June)

There is something reassuring about chefs who know exactly what kind of restaurant they want to run, and Cannubi by Umberto Bombana feels very clear on that point. For two days only, Chef Umberto Bombana returns to Bangkok alongside executive Italian chef Andrea Susto to introduce Cannubi’s Summer Menu 2026, built around Italian seasonality and ingredient-led cooking rather than overworked theatrics. The six-course menu moves through lighter summer flavours, while optional wine pairings lean into the slower lunch and dinner energy the restaurant already handles well. The bigger draw, though, is simply catching one of Italy’s most recognised chefs back in Bangkok again – especially inside Thailand’s only one Michelin-starred Italian restaurant. 4-5 June. B8,900++ per person. Cannubi by Umberto Bombana, L/F, Dusit Thani Bangkok. Lunch and dinner

Inner Spectrum slows things down considerably, gathering abstract and semi-abstract works from five artists interested less in explanation than emotional residue. Across layered textures, shifting compositions and large stretches of deliberate emptiness, the exhibition explores memory, anxiety and the mental static modern life leaves hanging around our heads. There’s no polished escapism here, thankfully. Just uncertainty, silence and room to sit with both. May 23-June 12. Free. Art Jewel Gallery, Siam Paragon. 10am-10pm

MunMun Srinakarin opens MMAD Gallery with six exhibitions from the first artists selected through the MMADness is Calling project, giving emerging names space to experiment across installation, sculpture, sound and textiles. Psyche and Flesh turns suffering and memory into tactile forms, while Upper’s What Lies on Top of the Mountain pairs animation, towering canvases and atmospheric audio to unpack the awkward quiet after intimacy. Elsewhere, Jhanyar’s 24/7 Objects reframes Bangkok’s pavements and everyday clutter with a sharply observant eye for city life. Steam Stream drifts through water and rice fields, Sunburn The Kid reconstructs discarded fabric into new textile works and Fish Are Friends introduces scrap-metal fish puppets for anyone carrying around a little low-level loneliness. May 7-June 21. Free. MMAD GALLERY. 11am-7pm