The Facts
Mandy El-Sayegh is among the commissioned artists for the Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB 2026), themed "Angels and Mara," which explores dialectical opposites between goodness and the undesirable. For BAB26, El-Sayegh has created "The Campaign," an immersive installation featuring new paintings arranged in a constellation that draws on traditional temples as well as luxury interiors and shopping destinations. The walls are covered with canvases in warm, rich tones—paintings-in-progress with news stories, archival imagery, and advertising silkscreened within their layers. The title alludes to marketing and military campaigns, drawing attention to reports of historical and contemporary violence that leak through the seductive surfaces of her works.
The Signal
El-Sayegh's practice has long probed the shaping of power relations, desire, and flows of information, and here she considers the historical and current consumption of exoticised aesthetics of Asia. The work suggests that the associative logic of orientalism can be used to interweave or re-insert obfuscated elements, with allusions to solidarity movements and fragments of marginalised histories embedded in the layered surfaces. For collectors and curators, this commission signals the Biennale's commitment to politically engaged, immersive contemporary art, and reinforces El-Sayegh's standing as a rising international voice whose layered canvases resonate with current debates on representation and memory.
- Artists: Mandy El-Sayegh
- Locations: Bangkok
The Morning Signal · Daily
Get stories like this in your inbox
The art world in one daily email — auctions, openings, and acquisitions from 90+ primary sources, distilled into a five-minute read. Independent — no marketplace, no gallery ads.
Join collectors, dealers & curators
No spam · free every morning · unsubscribe anytime
The Jobs Digest · Weekly
New art-world jobs, every Monday
The Jobs Digest rounds up the week’s new museum, gallery, and auction-house openings — with salary when disclosed. One email a week, unsubscribe anytime.
