Postcards from Bangkok: A Vogue Editor Puts Together a City Guide for Your Next Visit

The first intimations of how buzzy Bangkok had become to the art world hit me a little more than a year ago in Hong Kong, on the first day of the city’s art week.  I ran into a curator friend, German nationality, long based in Asia, and as someone who works with museums and private foundations and art collections, sits in-the-know. He didn’t even say hello. Just went straight to: “If there’s anything you do this week, go to the dinner tonight hosted by the Bangkok people. The energy’s insane. It’s the most exciting scene in Asia right now. And trust me, you’ll have fun.”

I texted a friend who floats through the global art circuit, and she said the same thing. “Come with me,” she invited.

And so I found myself enjoying superb Thai food by chef Prin Polsuk at Samrub Samrub Thai, at a dinner hosted by Bangkok CityCity, Nova Contemporary, and Philip Huang NYC — a trio I’d later understand as not just collaborators, but some of the key players in the emergence of the Thai capital as Southeast Asia’s art city du jour.  

I was seated beside Kulapat Yantrasast, a Thai creative contributing in a major way to shaping the international art landscape.  As the principal of the firm WHY,  he is the architect behind major museum projects such as the Michael D Rockefeller wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the renovation of the Louvre, two private art spaces in Thailand, and even Contempo, Manila’s contemporary art museum project slated to open in a few years. 

The food, the company, the conversations, all contributed to that evening’s mood. There was a charge in the air. A sense that something big had begun.

Fast forward to 2025. When offered the chance to join some art colleagues and friends for a series of events for the long Labor Day weekend in Bangkok, I immediately said yes.