Professor Emeritus Vichai Sithirat, National Artist in Visual Arts (Sculpture), 2015
b.1947, currently lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand

Professor Emeritus Vichai Sithirat was born in 1947 in Nakhon Phanom Province. He completed his lower secondary certificate at Poh Chang School between 1961 and 1966. He later earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture, Second Class Honors, from Silpakorn University in 1971, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the Graduate School, Silpakorn University, in 1977. After completing his studies, he began his career as an art instructor at Silpakorn University in 1972, where he taught sculpture at both undergraduate and graduate levels while continuing his own artistic practice. In 1994, he was appointed Professor in Sculpture.

Throughout his career, Sithirat has received significant awards and honors at both national and international levels. He was honoured with the title of National Artist in Visual Arts (Sculpture) in 2015 and, in the same year, was selected as a lifetime member of the International Association for Monumental Sculpture Events.  Earlier in his career, the artist was invited as an artist in residence at the University of Western Sydney and the University of New South Wales in Australia in 1993. In 1990, he was honored by the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters with a commission to create the Buddha image Phra Phuttha Suriyothai Sirikit Thikhayumongkhon. In 1987, he was invited by the organizing committee of the 1988 Olympic Games to participate in the World Invitational Open Air Sculpture Exhibition in Seoul, South Korea. In 1981, he was selected to represent Thailand at the 1st ASEAN Sculpture Symposium in Singapore. His competition awards include a Bronze Medal at the 25th National Exhibition of Art in 1978, a Silver Medal at the 24th National Exhibition of Art in 1977, a Bronze Medal at the Srinakorn Bank Art Exhibition in 1976, and a Bronze Medal at the 22nd National Exhibition of Art in 1975.

Sithirat’s works have been exhibited continuously in Thailand and abroad. Examples of his important international group exhibitions and projects include Korea & Thai Hybrid at Gail Art Museum and Religious Beliefs and Contemporary Social Phenomena of Southeast Asia at Guangdong Museum of Art, China, in 2007; The 15th International Symposium of Monumental Sculpture in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, in 2006; Thai American Vietnam Art Exchange 2004 to 2006 in San Luis Obispo, California, United States; Thai, Korean, and Chinese International Contemporary Art at Silpakorn University Art Gallery in 2004; IMPRESSIONS OF HUE 2002, The Third International Sculpture Symposium in Hue, Vietnam; Thai Italian Art Space 2001 at the Museo Nazionale di Arte Orientale in Rome, Italy; Bangkok Art Project 1998 Thailand, organised on the occasion of the Asian Games in Bangkok; Bangkok Meets Cologne in Germany; 86 Seoul Contemporary Asian Art Show in South Korea; and Buddha Image and Drawing, an exhibition of sculpture and drawing at the Faculty of Visual Arts, University of Western Sydney, Australia, in 1993. His works have also been shown in many exhibitions in Thailand, such as Small World, Contemporary Thai Art 2006 at Silpakorn University Art Gallery and several editions of the National Exhibition of Art from the early period of his career. His important solo exhibitions include Sculpture of the Spirit at the National Gallery, Bangkok, in 2009, and Sculpture in Homage to the Teacher at Silpakorn University Art Gallery, Bangkok, in 2007.

Sithirat’s sculptural practice reflects a continuous development of thought and form. In his early period, the artist created works within an academic approach grounded in the foundation laid by Professor Silpa Bhirasri. The human figure therefore often served as his principal subject, inspired by human life and social conditions. He later shifted his interest from solid mass to void, structure, and volume, creating sculptural forms that appear light and open while retaining strong visual energy. This development led to what is known as structural sculpture. The sculptor subsequently expanded his practice through experiments with materials such as stone, sheet metal, steel plate, light, color, surface, space, and installation, using them to convey philosophical meanings and Buddhist principles. Misery, Delusion, Hope… The Wise, created in 2011 and displayed in the collection of MOCA BANGKOK, is an important example of his transformation of mental states into sculptural form. The work arranges a group of Kuman Thong figures in a circular composition to represent the human mind caught in the cycle of suffering, delusion, and hope. At the center, a Kuman Thong figure seated in meditation on a boat illuminated by light suggests a mind endowed with wisdom, purity, clarity, and calm, moving toward the realm of Dhamma. Today, Professor Emeritus Vichai Sithirat continues to be recognized as an artist, educator, and major contributor to the development of contemporary Thai sculpture.