Art exhibitions in Chiang Mai this November

Self-love takes centre stage in To Be Fully Known: A Self-Love Retrospective, an exhibition by Chiang Mai-based artist Asazak Azvahiransiri. Through expressive, abstract paintings, the show explores the feelings we suppress, the fears we carry and the importance of making space for vulnerability. Drawing on the metaphor of the mind as an overgrown garden, Asazak invites visitors to let go of their analytical instincts, reconnect with their inner child and embrace the parts of themselves they may have kept hidden.

The exhibition is rooted in the artist’s own journey towards self-acceptance. After years of directing his energy towards others and feeling creatively drained, he found that learning to value himself, alongside the support of close friends, transformed his outlook and practice. Through gestural brushwork, layered colour and loose, organic forms, the paintings offer an invitation to pause, lower your guard and reconnect with what makes you feel alive.

November 3-January 31, 2027. Meltdistrict Labo, Heng Station. Rotfai Alley, Wat Ket. 8am-8pm

Friendship, like art, evolves over time. FRIENDS brings three artists and longtime friends back together at Fahlanna Art Museum, tracing a connection that began at the College of Fine Arts and has endured as their lives and creative practices have taken different paths. Featuring Vatcharin Bhumichitr, Sakchira Wiengkao and Supachet Bhumakarn, the exhibition explores how individual experiences shape the way each artist sees and interprets the world.

Bhumichitr draws on more than 25 years of travelling and living abroad, exploring the dualities of nature, from its beauty to its more unpredictable and powerful forces. Wiengkao looks to the cultural heritage of Hmong, Akha and Karen communities in Phrae, reworking traditional weaving, embroidery and dyeing techniques into contemporary textile art. Meanwhile, Bhumakarn takes the elephant as his starting point, using line, colour and space to explore balance, adaptation and change. More than simply a reunion, FRIENDS offers a look at how friendship, shared beginnings and individual journeys can continue to connect people over time.

November 14-December 15. Fahlanna Art Museum. Wiang Kaew Road, Si Phum. Opening reception November 14, 4-7pm. Thursday-Tuesday, 10am-7pm

Artists, designers, musicians and curious minds are invited to come together at Open Art Salon, a gathering celebrating creative expression in all its forms. Presented by Cave Cave and We Are the Future!, the event welcomes everyone from visual artists and photographers to makers, performers and experimental musicians, with opportunities to showcase work, exchange ideas and connect with like-minded creatives. The programme spans visual art, design, photography, zines, installations and crafts, alongside live music, performances and open decks. Cave Cave will provide space for exhibitions and creative booths, with projection equipment and basic facilities available. Artists interested in participating are encouraged to prepare a brief portfolio or samples of their work, along with their preferred presentation format and any space or equipment requirements. Booth arrangements and other details will be confirmed individually.

Whether you have work to exhibit, sounds to share or simply want to meet Chiang Mai’s creative community, Open Art Salon offers a space to share, create, connect and inspire. To find out more or express interest, DM @cavecavecnx on Instagram.

November 14. Cave Cave. Chang Phuak Soi 2, Chang Phuak. Open Art Salon, 6pm-midnight, DJs from 10pm

Sadness, anger and anxiety are often feelings we try to suppress, but in In Between, Chiang Mai artist Phonnapha Phektakhu invites us to see them as companions rather than enemies to overcome. The solo exhibition brings together 83 paintings and 10 sculptures, including the large canvas The Drowned and featuring a cast of imaginary friends called Saen Son. Working with colour, texture and expressive forms, Phektakhu explores how art can give shape to emotions that are difficult to articulate. A contemporary koi and expressionism artist, Phektakhu draws on personal experience to create work that moves between playful characters and more introspective abstractions. Her work has been exhibited at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC), and she received an award at the 12th Asia Plus Art Exhibition.

Taking its name from a Thai phrase meaning 'along the way', In Between reflects on the idea that difficult emotions are part of life, not simply obstacles to overcome. The exhibition encourages visitors to pause, connect with the work and perhaps recognise something of their own experience in it.

October 27-April 25, 2027. SYN Gallery, SYN Boutique Hotel. Chonprathan Road, Chang Phuak. Thursday-Tuesday, 10am-7pm

What do we hold on to when a relationship, a place or a chapter of our lives has come to an end? The Museum of Broken Relationships marks its 20th anniversary and two years in Chiang Mai with Stories Still Here, a programme exploring the memories and emotions carried by everyday objects. Moving beyond romantic relationships, the project looks at the connections we have with friends, family, places, our sense of identity and the versions of ourselves we leave behind.

The anniversary programme invites visitors to contribute to this growing archive in two ways. What Remains? is an intimate roundtable where eight selected participants will share an object connected to a meaningful person, relationship, memory or moment in their lives. Through storytelling, listening, drawing and writing, they will explore the stories these objects hold. Each participant will donate their object and handwritten account to the museum, where they will be displayed. The free session will be facilitated by art therapist Pornpilin Tancharoen and moderator Varith Detprasit. An open call is now inviting eight participants to take part.

Visitors can also contribute to the Card Station and Letters Between Zagreb and Chiang Mai, an installation in the museum reception area. Pick up an archive card and share a memory, friendship, farewell or moment that has stayed with you. Cards will become part of a growing wall of memories, with messages from Chiang Mai potentially travelling to the museum's original home in Zagreb.

November 7-December 31. Admission B200, concessions B150. Museum of Broken Relationships. Thapae Road, Chang Moi. 10am-10pm

The 14th Self-Enquiry Project, presented in collaboration with ATTA Gallery, brings together works from different periods of Kamin Lertchaiprasert’s practice alongside pieces by artists and thinkers who have influenced his understanding of art, life and spiritual awareness. The exhibition grew from encounters that left a lasting impression, including Rirkrit Tiravanija’s relational approach to art and his friendship with philosopher and writer Pramuan Pengchan. Works include the papier-mâché Buddha sculpture Lord Buddha said, ‘If you see Dhamma, you see me’, made from decommissioned Thai banknotes, Samsara (Birth, Aging, Sickness, Death), Living Kindness and The Nature of Emptiness, alongside newer video and photographic works. Guest artists include Rirkrit Tiravanija, Angkrit Ajchariyasophon, Teerasak Panyakaew and Weerakit Achareewongpaisan. The exhibition considers the relationship between inner and outer worlds, value, everyday life and artistic creation, with the opening presented as a round-table conversation featuring Lertchaiprasert, Tiravanija, Pengchan and writer Pinyo Trisuriyathamma.

October 3-December 19. 31st Century Museum of Contemporary Spirit (office). Soi Wat-Umong, Suthep Road. Opening reception and talk October 3, 2-6pm. Saturday-Tuesday 1pm-5pm

Lacquer is a heritage craft with deep roots in Thailand, while Kamalor, the traditional technique of painting in coloured lacquer, is comparatively rare in the Lanna tradition. Klai. Rak. Kamalor explores how the technique can be sustained and developed for a new generation through research into alternative materials. A research team from Chulalongkorn University, led by Asst. Prof. Dr. Somchai Boonyanun and Lecturer Sanan Rattana, has developed materials designed to recreate the depth, gloss and layered colour of traditional Kamalor without relying on increasingly scarce and costly natural lacquer sap.

At Art Connecting Lacquer Museum, Kamalor paintings by Sanan Rattana are displayed alongside traditional natural-lacquer works and pieces made using the alternative materials, with research displays and a hands-on table allowing visitors to examine the surfaces, including under UV light. Later in the exhibition, students from Chiang Mai Rajabhat University will add their own alternative-material lacquer paintings to the upper-floor display. At the heart of the exhibition is a question about where the value of traditional art lies: in its materials, or in the knowledge, skill and intent behind its making.

October 1-December 30. Art Connecting Lacquer Museum. Charoenrat Road, Wat Ket. Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm

From intricate Meiji-era crafts to contemporary capsule-toy figures and food models, The Superlative Artistry of Japan traces the extraordinary technical skill and inventive thinking behind Japanese craftsmanship. The touring exhibition, organised by The Japan Foundation, Bangkok in collaboration with the Creative Economy Agency and curated by Professor Yuji Yamashita, brings together more than 30 selected works spanning traditional kogei and contemporary creations. Highlights include a large Satsuma vase decorated with flowers and gold leaf, an embroidered hanging depicting the gates of Nikko Shrine and a shell-shaped incense container demonstrating the maki-e lacquer technique. Contemporary pieces show how the same attention to detail continues in unexpected forms, from hyper-realistic food replicas to tiny animal figures by Kaiyodo. The exhibition considers how Japanese craftsmanship developed during the Meiji period, when traditional techniques were combined with Western influences, and how those skills continue to find new expressions today.

October 10-November 15. TCDC Chiang Mai. Muang Samut Road, Chang Moi. 10:30am-7pm. Closed Mondays

Traditional musical instruments, textiles, photographs and recorded music come together in Melodies and Motifs in the Mountains, a multimedia exhibition by Cultural Crossroads Asia and Victoria Vorreiter. The exhibition marks the official launch of Cultural Crossroads Asia on the world stage, bringing together material that explores the musical and textile traditions of northern Thailand and the wider Golden Triangle. Through photographs, textiles, instruments and sound, the exhibition looks at the ways music, craft, storytelling and cultural knowledge are passed between generations, creating an immersive portrait of traditions that remain part of everyday life.

Vorreiter’s long-running work documenting the region’s musical heritage provides the foundation for the exhibition, bringing together visual and recorded material that gives audiences a closer look at the people, instruments and traditions behind northern Thailand’s diverse musical cultures. The exhibition opens alongside Tales My Ancestors Taught Me, an afternoon of age-old Akha songs and stories offering an opportunity to experience some of the musical traditions represented in the exhibition with the multimedia display continuing through the new year.

October 3-January 10, 2027. Chiang Mai City Craft Space. Thapae Road. Opening reception and performance October 3, 4pm-5pm

One of Chiang Mai's longest-running printmaking studios is back in its original neighbourhood. C.A.P Studio, founded in 2003 by Thai artist and master printer Kitikong Tilokawattanotai, has reopened at Nimmanhaemin Soi 17 following a major renovation, closing its temporary Old City location in the process. 

The expanded space has been purpose-built for printmaking collaboration, with the studio functioning as what it calls a living lab: visitors can watch the process from production through to finished edition, speak directly with artists and printers and browse or collect works made on site. The studio specialises in hand-pulled limited edition original prints, etching and woodblock among them, developed in close collaboration with Thai and international artists for over more than two decades.

C.A.P Studio. Nimmanhaemin Soi 17. Tuesday-Saturday 10.30am-6pm