Michael Shaowanasai

Michael Shaowanasai (, ; born 1964) is a Thai-American artist and actor who lives in Bangkok, Thailand. His works includes performance art, photography, video, film and installations. Openly gay, his works are often provocative, such as photographic portrait of himself as a Buddhist monk made up to look like a woman. Active as an artist since 1997, his works have featured in international exhibitions since 1999, and his work is held in major collections.

Early life and education Shaowanasai was born in 1964 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

He graduated from School of Law at Chulalongkorn University in 1985, earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at San Francisco Art Institute (which included filmmaking

Among his film and video works is the 2003 feature film, The Adventure of Iron Pussy, which he co-directed with Apichatpong Weerasethakul,

Shaowanasai was awarded many residencies between 1997 and 2005, including at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada; New Delhi, India; Paris, France; Columbo, Sri Lanka; and Hokkaido, Japan and at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Acting As an actor, he has a featured role in the 2006 romantic-comedy Metrosexual and portrays a soccer referee in Lucky Loser.

In 2012 he starred in a Philippine-Thai Film entitled Suddenly It's Magic produced by Star Cinema.

Collections Shaowanasai's work is represented in several institutions, including the Singapore Art Museum.

Selected exhibitions In 2012, Radu Die: New works by Michael Shaowanasai, was mounted at the H Gallery in Bangkok. His work has also been exhibited in Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America, including the following group exhibitions: Venice Biennale (2003 and 2009) Asian Traffic, Gallery 4A, Sydney (2006) Art Connexions, Goethe Institut, Berlin (2007) Act of Faith - On faith and conflict, ecstasy and excess, Noorderlicht, a photographic festival in Groningen, Netherlands (2007 and 2008) Lifeboat #2551, Sydney Biennale (2008) "The Promenade des Homos" (2020), a photograph featured in the Bangkok Art Biennale 2020

Film festivals Frameline Film Festival (2004) Berlin International Film Festival (2004) Singapore International Film Festival (2005) Melbourne International Film Festival (2005) Busan International Film Festival, Busan, South Korea (2010)