Somrak Sila
Co-founder of WTF Bangkok
Thailand
Somrak Sila has been working as an arts administrator for 15 years. Since graduating with an MA in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy from Goldsmiths College, London in 2006, she has been involved managing and curating complex art and cross-border cultural projects and events for the public and private sector.
She started out as Art Officer at British Council Thailand (2002-2005) and curated the UNHCR Refugee Film Festival (2006). Other jobs have included working for Pernod Ricard (curator for an art installation by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset in Bangkok (2006) and the Mekong Art and Culture Project funded by Rockefeller Foundation, Goethe-Institut Thailand and Japan foundation Thailand (2007-2008). She is a co-founder and curator of an art space and a café -- WTF Café & gallery (since 2010) and manages several creative spaces in central Bangkok.
WTF gallery, found in 2010, is known as pioneering independent gallery as well as a platform for artists in all media and formats exhibiting creative work with thought-provoking and critical analysis of current affairs and social issues within and outside Thailand.
WTF the bar has made it into World New Best Top 20 Bars by Conde Nast Traveler Magazine (USA) in 2011 and World New Best Top 10 Bars by www.huffingtonpst.com in 2011. The space has also been used as a venue to present intimate, diverse and rarely found social advocacy events and performances, including “I AM LIU XIAOBO”, an event promoting freedom of speech and artistic expression, and the global exhibition “Change this world! 50 years of posters for Amnesty International”.
In the current political climate, Somrak has used WTF as one of a rare few platforms for contemporary arts in Bangkok that stage provocative exhibitions. She was selected as one of Thailand's 50 brightest, most influential and promising individuals under 40 by Thailand Tatler magazine in 2018.