The past three years have been difficult for Thai artists. Many have felt badly let down by the lack of support from the country's art establishment during the recent economic and financial crises. And with fewer active galleries in which to show their work, many young artists have struggled to maintain a consistent art practice or even to begin anything experimental. Yet, while some have failed to grapple successfully with the new economic realities, others have fashioned a productive period that has yielded significant personal and professional achievement. One such artist is the Srisaket born painter Mitree Parahom, 30, whose work during the past five years has shown remarkable development.

Fiercely independent and extremely proud, Thailand's policy-makers and citizens alike protect their nation's international reputation and identity vigorously. It is this identity which is at the center of much of Parahom's work since he began painting. The resultant work has been a revelation. Dealing with such themes as identity, Buddhism, masks, the countryside, farming, nature, and the spectral world of greed and corruption that lurks beneath the surface of everyday life, Parahom's works are powerful artistic statements. Each of his various exhibitions and series -The Land In My Mind (1993), - Through the Mirror (1995), - Breath of Life (1995-1997), - Dance of Life (1998), and Faces of Siam (1999) -has its own unique qualities.

"From the moment I first started painting seriously, there's been some fixation on my cultural identity. I come from the Isaan region in the northeast of Thailand, which has its own unique individual beliefs, art, and culture," says Parahom. "But when anyone thinks of Thailand they immediately stereotype us as a nation of go-go bars and as a country synonymous with the sex industry. I hope that through my art I can reverse people's ingrained misconception and instill an interest in the diversity of culture that makes up Thailand's rich heritage."

Parahom has drawn inspiration from his home town, an agricultural community in the province of Sisaket. Early works are firmly rooted in this world and have a certain following and appreciation, but they lack the strength of recent, more mature paintings. His reflections on his childhood spent working the farm with his parents are quite naturally filled with nostalgia and a certain sentimentality. Although the work and living in those days was hard and difficult, his early experiences informed his sensibility and his views of the discomfort and unfamiliarity of Bangkok's urban world where he studied fine arts at Chulalongkorn University, from which he graduated in 1991. All of this is clear in the works in his earliest exhibitions.

"In my early pictures I was obsesscd by farm stock," he says. "They were devoid of people. It intrigued me the way these creatures lived in communities, birds, chickens, pigs, and how people behave in a similar manner," says Parahom. "When I look back at the (second) exhibition, The Land in My Mind (19931), I now realize that it was very cute. The images and colors were similar to now but it was all very aesthetically appealing. The ideas were basic. It was very naive, almost child-like. Many kids came to see this exhibition and fell in love with the work."

That Parahom may now perceive some of his early work to be naive he has not been afraid to meet the challenge and the difficulties of change (however uncomfortable he may have felt) as his exhibition - Through the Mirror (1995) clearly showed. Here his imagery changed as he pursued a more sinister side of Bangkok-the pleasure seeking in seedy bars and strip joints. He rather innocently attributed it to people neglecting their Buddhist roots-having strayed from the path to become immersed in their sinful, urban consumerist surroundings. Yet, while viewing the world of others, Parahom's, too, was straying.