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

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

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

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

A pork shop in a Narathiwat market becomes an unlikely stage for Thijme Maassen’s first solo exhibition, and that feels entirely the point. The Dutch sculptor, who moves between Thailand and the Netherlands, borrows the rhythms of butchery – slicing, grinding, hanging – and folds them back into his own methods. Pork appears not as metaphor but as matter, loaded with labour, habit and familiarity. Maassen also toys with the cartoon pigs found on shop logos, all smiles and cuteness, spoons raised. Reused here, those friendly faces start asking awkward questions about appetite and denial. Two drinks created with Duemdum Space,  Reset Sip, Eating Pork? arrives as lemon tea in a water bucket, while Plum-Boiled Pork Cola leans sweet and strange. Both are for staying put and talking longer.   January 31-February 3. Free. Duemdum Space, midday-9pm

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

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

This feels like the sort of exhibition you stumble across on a slow afternoon and end up thinking about days later. Jean-Paul De Croux’s abstract paintings sit quietly, asking you to slow your pace and notice what’s happening on the surface. Inspired by the natural world, each canvas carries traces of time through layered marks, rough textures and gestures that feel both deliberate and instinctive. Light slips across the work in subtle ways, changing how colours behave and how forms settle. Emotion isn’t announced but sensed, like weather rolling in. Nothing here feels fixed or final. Memory, movement and material seem to shift depending on how long you stay with them. It’s less an exhibition to decode and more a moment to share, reflective without being precious and reassuringly human in its restraint.   Until February 8. Free. 5/F, Art Jewel, Siam Paragon, 10am-10pm

A Kid from Yesterday returns with a fifth solo outing that feels quietly defiant. Somphon ‘Paolo’ Ratanavaree’s latest body of work steps back from certainty and sits without knowing, a rare move in a culture obsessed with definitions. Titled “Just” BEING BE/NG BE—NG, the exhibition borrows from Camus’ Philosophy of Sisyphus while nodding to the calm discipline of a Zen garden. The result isn’t comfort or escape, but acceptance of contradiction. Cigarettes sit opposite raked sand, everyday habits facing ritual stillness, neither winning the argument. This space doesn’t promise healing or answers. It allows doubt to exist without apology. Being human here means pausing, noticing and carrying on regardless. In a world eager for declarations, the show suggests something softer and braver: existing without explanation might already be enough.   January 17-March 1. Free. Street Star Gallery, 8am-6pm

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

The second solo exhibition by Thai artist Krittin Kaewyongphang, better known as Condo Ceramics, feels like a quiet conversation rather than a statement. Curated by Jason Yang, the show leans on ceramics and illustration to talk about memory, self-acceptance and the value of taking one’s time. Titled Fire Me Slowly, the work reflects Krittin’s own path as an LGBTQ individual, shaped by gradual understanding rather than sudden revelation. Ceramic figures appear soft yet stubborn, joined by monster-like characters that refuse neat labels or fixed identities. They exist comfortably, without apology or explanation. Nothing here asks to be hurried. Growth unfolds at its own speed, gently and without pressure. The exhibition suggests that arriving is overrated anyway. Staying present, slightly unfinished and fully yourself, might be the point worth holding onto.   January 10-February 9. Free. GalileOasis Gallery, 9am-8pm