We like to call Bangkok the city of Paradox – and this one’s a nice reflection of that. “Fine Arts”
Overall, Bangkok is not a city that’s big on graffiti, but you can find art in many places where you wouldn’t expect it – like in food wrappings made from natural materials, on patterns drawn by vendors with sauce on top of a simple street food, in glitzy shopping malls, in homes of people who you wouldn’t expect to have artistic interests, in taxis, in the ruins of unfinished construction projects, and on and on…
If you have an interest in graffiti in Bangkok, you should check out a video about Alex Face, a local graffiti artist. He explains that in Bangkok, things are a lot more mellow – the artists actually go to talk with the owners and ask them: “Would you allow us to paint your wall? We can make it look really nice.” And if the owner says okay, they go ahead and do it, and if not, they don’t. There are illegal graffities too of course, but overall, the relaxed attitude of the people here makes things a lot easier and more pleasant, because it does not have the whole “war” feeling. You’ll have to click here to see the video, unfortunately it can not be embeeded in this site.
Another video here where you can check out a whole bunch of graffitis in Bangkok.