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

Jesper Haynes presents a photography exhibition that looks back at downtown New York in the ‘80s and ‘90s with clear eyes and no soft focus. Faces feel close, streets feel tight and the city shows itself without asking for permission. Featuring figures like Andy Warhol and Naomi Campbell, the work traces Haynes’ long fascination with street life, sparked when Warhol invites him to New York as a teenager and quietly changes his direction. Haynes earns a reputation for photographing the edges of urban life with honesty that never feels staged. His black-and-white images read like pages torn from a private notebook, raw but deliberate. Often described as a rebel diarist, he documents nights, friendships and passing moments that refuse nostalgia. What stays with you is the intimacy, as if the city leans over to tell you a secret and trusts you not to interrupt.   January 24-February 14. Free. Chaloem La Art House, midday-6pm

FUSE makes his Thailand debut with IGNITE, a solo exhibition that sits between cultures without trying to smooth the edges. Born in 1985 and now based in Tokyo, he works through oil paint, folding Japanese and American pop references into images that are familiar yet slightly unsettled. At the centre is LOOKA, a recurring figure shaped by cloud-like lines that never quite settle. The form shifts from canvas to canvas, hovering between character and idea. Guided by the notion of seeing with the mind’s eye, LOOKA looks back at a world crowded with information, searching for something steadier underneath. Clouds stand for freedom, though they also blur vision, turning clarity into mist. That tension runs quietly through the work. Nothing here offers easy answers, only a reminder that truth often hides behind soft edges and patient looking.   Until February 8. Free. KYLA Gallery and Wine Bar, 3pm-midnight

Bangkok welcomes 2026 with a knowing wink as Muse Anime Festival sets up at JAM SPACE, a familiar meeting point for pop culture devotees. This is less trade fair, more shared obsession. Fourteen anime titles spread across 17 photo zones turn fandom into a walk-through experience, complete with oversized sets and scenes designed for lingering rather than rushing. Expect towering inflatables of Momo and Okarun from DAN DA DAN plus Rimuru, the eternally cheerful slime, looming large for cameras. Beyond the visuals, shelves fill with officially licensed pieces and harder-to-find imports, tempting even the disciplined collector. Food gets its own moment too, thanks to a themed cafe riffing on SPY x FAMILY and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.    January 10-March 29. Free. 4/F, MBK Centre, 11am-9pm

The next most important thing after love Maho Takahashi’s solo exhibition speaks softly, trusting that memory does the heavy lifting. Her works return to a gentler world, one that feels familiar even if it cannot be placed exactly. Childhood appears not as nostalgia but as texture: fleeting moods, half-remembered comforts and the quiet confusion of growing older without noticing it happen. Rather than spelling anything out, Takahashi leaves space. Images hover, emotions shift slightly and meaning waits for the viewer to bring their own history to the surface. It feels personal without becoming precious, reflective without leaning sentimental. This is an exhibition that understands growing up as an ongoing process rather than a finished state. Children moving towards adulthood sit alongside adults still figuring things out, often using the same tools. What lingers most is a sense of permission to feel gently, to remember unevenly and to accept that some memories work better when left a little unresolved.   Until March 8. Free. CURU Gallery, midday-5pm

Song Wat turns playful without losing its sense of history. For Bangkok Design Week, the district becomes a walkable board game, stretching across streets that once carried trade, gossip and daily deals. Building on the earlier manhole cover project, this new chapter invites visitors to play merchant, navigating landmarks and stories that shaped the neighbourhood’s working life. Set along Song Wat Road at Tuk Khaek, Merchants of Song Wat reimagines the area as a network of warehouses and shops. Players move as caravans, trading goods, striking bargains with local businesses and slowly building their own corner of commerce. The rules stay friendly, the visuals clear, drawing from familiar colours and signs around the area.    January 29-February. Free. Song Wat, 2pm-8pm on weekdays and 1pm-7pm on weekends.

Jesper Haynes presents a photography exhibition that looks back at downtown New York in the ‘80s and ‘90s with clear eyes and no soft focus. Faces feel close, streets feel tight and the city shows itself without asking for permission. Featuring figures like Andy Warhol and Naomi Campbell, the work traces Haynes’ long fascination with street life, sparked when Warhol invites him to New York as a teenager and quietly changes his direction. Haynes earns a reputation for photographing the edges of urban life with honesty that never feels staged. His black-and-white images read like pages torn from a private notebook, raw but deliberate. Often described as a rebel diarist, he documents nights, friendships and passing moments that refuse nostalgia. What stays with you is the intimacy, as if the city leans over to tell you a secret and trusts you not to interrupt.   January 24-February 14. Free. Chaloem La Art House, midday-6pm

FUSE makes his Thailand debut with IGNITE, a solo exhibition that sits between cultures without trying to smooth the edges. Born in 1985 and now based in Tokyo, he works through oil paint, folding Japanese and American pop references into images that feel familiar yet slightly unsettled. At the centre is LOOKA, a recurring figure shaped by cloud-like lines that never quite settle. The form shifts from canvas to canvas, hovering between character and idea. Guided by the notion of seeing with the mind’s eye, LOOKA looks back at a world crowded with information, searching for something steadier underneath. Clouds stand for freedom, though they also blur vision, turning clarity into mist. That tension runs quietly through the work. Nothing here offers easy answers, only a reminder that truth often hides behind soft edges and patient looking.   Until February 8. Free. KYLA Gallery and Wine Bar, 3pm-midnight

Memory often settles in the body before it reaches language. A brush of skin, the pressure of a hand, the sting that lingers just long enough to stay. This project leans on that idea, inviting Badego.bodega to curate an intimate gathering of seven tattoo artists: De hour, Deanxittt, Ice House Studio, Lau Garan Studio, matattyesyes, Sakiw Tattoo and Troll The Tatt. Together, their works read like a shared archive of touch, where personal histories sit quietly beneath ink. Each mark holds a moment that resisted words, shaped instead through line, colour and trust. The exchange between artist and wearer matters as much as the finished image, a private conversation made visible. What emerges feels tender rather than dramatic, reminding us that presence is often felt through skin, not screens, and remembered long after the feeling fades.   January 29-March 19. Free. MunMun Srinakarin, 10.30am-9.30pm

Hands still matter, even now. At Rosewood Bangkok, Made in Thai-Hands arrives through a collaboration with Play Art House, offering a thoughtful look at living craft traditions shaped by patience rather than speed. Curated by independent artist Seada Samdao, the exhibition brings together 10 Thai artists working between inherited techniques and contemporary thinking, without treating either as fixed. Moving through the space feels like travelling across different landscapes, guided by texture, material and touch. Threads hold hours of quiet labour, pigment settles through instinct and surfaces reveal years of repetition. Nothing rushes for attention. Instead, each work carries the weight of human effort and the calm confidence that comes from knowing a process deeply. While the rhythms of making remain central, the voices feel current, led by a generation carrying tradition forward with clarity rather than reverence. Craft here feels alive, personal and quietly defiant.   Until March 20. Free. G/F, Rosewood Bangkok, 9am-9pm

Ayino, Verapong Sritrakulkitjakarn paints as if remembering something just before it slips away. Dream gathers oil works shaped by half-formed thoughts, private histories and the odd details that linger after waking. Figures drift alongside objects, cartoons brush up against quieter symbols and nothing quite settles long enough to be pinned down. Linework moves with a nervous softness, guiding the eye through scenes that hover between recollection and invention. Meaning refuses to behave, shifting depending on who is looking and what they bring with them. Ayino treats painting less as storytelling and more as a way of thinking aloud, using colour and form to test feelings he cannot fully name. The result resembles a place you recognise without knowing why. Fragile, absorbing and gently unsettling, Dream sits with the idea that understanding does not always arrive neatly and that uncertainty can be oddly comforting.   Until February 8. Free. Number 1 Gallery, 10am-10pm