Standing Proud

Art patron Patrick Sun is building a brighter future for the LGBTQ community in Asia by hosting ambitious, thought-provoking exhibitions in major museums. This month he unveils his biggest show yet

- Oliver Giles

When Patrick Sun opened the first major exhibition in Asia dedicated to LGBTQ art in Taipei in 2017, he wasn’t sure how people would react. Would conservative journalists tear Spectrosynthesis to shreds? Would the art community resent being dragged into discussions about LGBTQ rights? Would the public even come?
“It was nerve-wracking,” says Patrick, founder of the Sunpride Foundation, an LGBTQ art organization. “But one of my most vivid memories of the show was of this young mother who brought her son there. Her son was maybe five or six years old. They were walking through the exhibition and they came across this huge charcoal drawing by Jimmy Ong. The subject was gay parenthood; the drawing shows two naked women holding a baby. The son asked his mother, ‘What is this about?’ It was a very innocent question, and the mother calmly knelt down and explained to her son that in this world there are men loving men, men loving women, and women loving women. That to me encapsulates what we are trying to do in one single scene.”

It’s a scene Patrick is determined to recreate in other countries around the region. Following the success of that exhibition at Taipei’s Museum of Contemporary Art, this month the Sunpride Foundation is opening the second iteration of the show at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. While the Taipei edition primarily featured artists from East Asia, this exhibition is focused on Southeast Asia. “This show is not just geared towards the local Thai people,” says Patrick. “We also hope people from neighbouring countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar and more will come and see the exhibition.”