Art Basel’s ‘Meet the artists’ series presents contemporary creatives shaping today’s cultural landscape

For over three decades, Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak has crafted a visual language that explores the body’s symbolic potential. Working across painting, sculpture, installations, and interactive culinary experiences, her art investigates themes of femininity, spirituality, and transformation.  

Sanpitak first gained international recognition for her ‘Breast Works’ series of sculptures, which abstracts the female form into essential shapes, connecting the personal with the universal. ‘At the beginning, it was about my experience as a woman, but I think over the years, it has crossed gender,’ she reflects. For Sanpitak, the breast represents more than motherhood – it embodies nurture, nourishment, and monumentality. Her iconic ‘Breast Stupa’ series merges the form with Buddhist architectural structures, creating objects that, as she explains in this episode of ‘Meet the artists’, unite ‘the sacred and the sensual.’

Her exploration of sensory experience extends into participatory works like 'Breast Stupa Cookery,' initiated in 2005. The ongoing project invites chefs to create dishes inspired by her sculptures, evolving into a collaborative examination of culture, identity, and connection through shared taste experiences.

Pinaree Sanpitak is represented by Galerie Lelong & Co. (Paris, New York), STPI (Singapore),and Ames Yavuz (Singapore, London, Sydney).