Our picks for the best things to do in Bangkok this weekend

Glass rarely gets top billing in an exhibition, but Thai artist Jakapan Vilasineekul makes a convincing case. His latest solo presentation gathers a new series of kiln-formed works made from layered float glass, the same material commonly found in office towers, shopfronts and apartment blocks across the city. Across the gallery, geometric forms, coloured panels and carefully arranged grids shift as daylight changes and visitors move around the room. Shadows fall across walls and floors, becoming part of the display. Drawing on architecture and the way glass shapes everyday experience, Vilasineekul turns a familiar building material into a quiet study of light, space and perception. June 13-July 11. Free entry. Richard Koh Fine Art Bangkok. 4 pm-7pm

Calling all book lovers and drink enthusiasts.  Bangkok’s chillest book festival returns with free entry across  10 leisurely days of reading, browsing and casual day drinking. Vistors are encouraged to settle in with a book and a cold drink while exploring craft markets, workshops, live music sessions and talks from fellow literary obsessives. Honestly, it feels less like a festival and more like a very well-organised excuse to keep adding books to your already dangerous reading pile while staying pleasantly hydrated.  June 26-July 5. Singha Complex. 11am-10pm

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. July 4-5. Free entry. GalileOasis Theatre. 11am-6pm

Pride Month brings a compelling reason to make tracks for Yaowarat, where new contemporary gallery Adult Material opens its doors with Against the Grain on June 18. Tucked among the neighbourhood’s glowing alleyways, the inaugural exhibition assembles artists from Bangkok, Berlin, Singapore and New York whose work probes identity, masculinity and the stories societies tell about belonging. Across sculpture, photography, installation and design, inherited symbols take on fresh meaning while intimacy, desire and power come under scrutiny. Expect standout contributions from Shen Wei, Oat Montien, Dylan Chan, Gregor Jahner and Thyme Neelaphanakul, alongside plenty to spark conversation long after you leave. June 18-August 15. Free entry. Adult Material. 1pm-6pm

There is something about a good hotel brunch that slowly wipes out the rest of your plans for the day, and Waldorf Astoria Bangkok seems fully aware of that. The hotel has launched a monthly Saturday Brunch at The Brasserie, running on the first Saturday of every month from noon-3pm, built for the sort of weekends where nobody is in any particular rush to leave. The seafood section lands first and unapologetically big, with towers stacked with oysters, lobster, river prawns, scallops alongside a roaming caviar trolley. Waldorf Astoria’s signature eggs benedict makes an appearance too, while foie gras stations and carving counters keep the whole thing firmly in leisurely celebration territory. From there, the menu shifts between international mains and richer Asian comfort dishes. Pan-seared snow fish, smoked duck breast, sous vide beef short rib and creamy crab capellini sit alongside Peking duck, suckling pig and barbecue pork. Dessert keeps the momentum going with a chocolate fountain, pastries, lychee-yuzu creations and enough cake to justify quietly cancelling your evening plans afterwards.From B3,550++ per person. The Brasserie, Waldorf Astoria Bangkok. Advance booking recommended. First Saturday of every month, 12pm-3pm. Upcoming dates include June 6, July 4, August 12 (special H.M. The Queen Mother’s Birthday edition), September 5, October 3, November 7 and December 5

Pride Month brings a thoughtful group show to Bangkok as Queer Art Thailand joins forces with 30 artists from Thailand and Taiwan for Patch the World: Between the Seams, Beyond the Surface. Using photography, video, performance and everyday objects, the exhibition considers how LGBTQ+ lives are shaped by memory, relationships and the quiet work of carrying on through imperfect circumstances. Spread across three thematic sections, the works shift from deeply personal stories to shared experiences, asking how people mend, adapt and make space for one another in everyday life. Until July 5. Free entry. Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. 10am-8pm

This two-person exhibition brings together the sharply detailed oil paintings of Kajonsak Rungsuriyan and the distorted, organic forms of Jaiko in a shared examination of humanity’s more uncomfortable questions. Kajonsak places injured figures among decaying religious architecture, while Jaiko reshapes the body into strange, shifting forms that sit somewhere between attraction and unease. Moving through the gallery, visitors encounter works concerned with violence, belief and the stories people tell themselves to explain both. The contrast between the artists is striking, yet their concerns overlap, creating a conversation that lingers long after you leave. June 20-July 5. Free entry. KYLA Gallery and Wine Bar. 3pm-midnight

A riverside stroll gets a creative twist at the Art Island Festival, where artists, musicians and independent makers take over a stretch of the Chao Phraya for the weekend. Browse stalls filled with original artwork, handmade goods and limited-run pieces, then join a workshop and make something of your own. Between activities, settle by the water with a drink and watch ferries and longtail boats pass as the afternoon drifts by. After dark, DJs take over a moored boat with an open-air psytrance set that keeps the riverfront busy well into the evening. July 5. Free entry. Bangkok Island. 4pm-11.59pm

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

Craft here reads like a way of staying present. The exhibition looks at time across Thailand and Southeast Asia as something layered and cyclical, shaped by ritual, labour and shared experience rather than strict progression. Makers move between past and present with a quiet ease, holding inherited knowledge while adjusting to what now demands. Objects carry that negotiation, each one marked by repetition. Slowness becomes intentional, offering an alternative to constant speed and easy consumption. Nothing feels rushed, yet nothing stands still either.  April 30-16 August. Free. Jim Thompson Art Center, 10am-6pm