Chanya Vitayakul (they/them, b. 2003) is a multidisciplinary artist from Bangkok, Thailand, and a recent graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with a BFA in Graphic Design.
Their practice explores the feminized and non-binary body as a porous site: one that absorbs, resists, and reconfigures the languages projected onto it. Working across sculpture, installation, and graphic design, Chanya blends personal narrative with material investigation to examine how the body is written, held, and sometimes violated by external systems: gender, language, family, nationhood, medicine. They engage with materials like latex, hair, crochet, text, and found objects, each chosen for its relationship to touch, containment, or the aesthetics of care and control.
Chanya’s work is not about resolution, but about pressure, rupture, and reconstitution. Their work invites viewers into shared spaces of discomfort and tenderness, where clarity gives way to slippage, and where the body speaks in fragments, stains, and residues. In this space, authorship is complicated; distributed between artist, viewer, and the materials themselves. Chanya’s work poses a quiet but insistent question: What does it mean to be seen, and to survive that seeing?
Thai Creative Student Collective: Duality of Home
Slow Combo, Bangkok TH 2023
V-Art Union 2024/7Online︎︎︎ 2024
Expiration Date: GD Triennial
Woods Gerry Gallery, Providence RI 2024
Symbio/Split
Gelman Gallery @ RISD Museum, Providence RI 2024
Surface Anomaly: New Explorations in Poster Design
Nothing is Real Gallery, Seoul KR 2024
Anything, Anytime
Graphic Design Commons RISD, Providence RI 2024
Here For Now: GD Senior Show
Woods Gerry Gallery, Providence RI 2025
When Time Lingers In The Air
A Space Gallery, Brooklyn NY 2025
Senior Invitational
Woods Gerry Gallery, Providence RI 2025
Publications
Survivors Arts and Writing Collective, Interview with Chanya Vitayakul by Maren Curtis︎︎︎
Curatory Magazine: Volume 5 (Interview)︎︎︎
The Indy Providence: Volume 49, Issue 5︎︎︎
Divide Magazine: Issue 12
Digital︎︎︎ Print︎︎︎
Artsin Square Magazine: Edition 7 (Back Cover and Interview)︎︎︎
Their practice explores the feminized and non-binary body as a porous site: one that absorbs, resists, and reconfigures the languages projected onto it. Working across sculpture, installation, and graphic design, Chanya blends personal narrative with material investigation to examine how the body is written, held, and sometimes violated by external systems: gender, language, family, nationhood, medicine. They engage with materials like latex, hair, crochet, text, and found objects, each chosen for its relationship to touch, containment, or the aesthetics of care and control.
Chanya’s work is not about resolution, but about pressure, rupture, and reconstitution. Their work invites viewers into shared spaces of discomfort and tenderness, where clarity gives way to slippage, and where the body speaks in fragments, stains, and residues. In this space, authorship is complicated; distributed between artist, viewer, and the materials themselves. Chanya’s work poses a quiet but insistent question: What does it mean to be seen, and to survive that seeing?
Exhibitions
Thai Creative Student Collective: Duality of Home
Slow Combo, Bangkok TH 2023
V-Art Union 2024/7Online︎︎︎ 2024
Expiration Date: GD Triennial
Woods Gerry Gallery, Providence RI 2024
Symbio/Split
Gelman Gallery @ RISD Museum, Providence RI 2024
Surface Anomaly: New Explorations in Poster Design
Nothing is Real Gallery, Seoul KR 2024
Anything, Anytime
Graphic Design Commons RISD, Providence RI 2024
Here For Now: GD Senior Show
Woods Gerry Gallery, Providence RI 2025
When Time Lingers In The Air
A Space Gallery, Brooklyn NY 2025
Senior Invitational
Woods Gerry Gallery, Providence RI 2025
Publications
Survivors Arts and Writing Collective, Interview with Chanya Vitayakul by Maren Curtis︎︎︎
Curatory Magazine: Volume 5 (Interview)︎︎︎
The Indy Providence: Volume 49, Issue 5︎︎︎
Divide Magazine: Issue 12
Digital︎︎︎ Print︎︎︎
Artsin Square Magazine: Edition 7 (Back Cover and Interview)︎︎︎
Previously @ the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
Currently in New York.
Lets talk:)
chanyavitayakul@gmail.com
Currently in New York.
Lets talk:)
chanyavitayakul@gmail.com