About
Supansa Thongsuk "Nicky"
Education
2023 Master of Cultural Materials Conservation, at the Faculty of Arts of
the University of Melbourne.
2019 Diploma of Leadership and Management at Lonsdale Institute, Melbourne.
2013 Bachelor of Fine Arts, at Chiang Mai University in Thailand, majoring in painting with a minor in traditional Thai painting.
Awards and Honourable
2020 Selected artworks from Shelter 2020 an innovative commission programme by Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV).
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2013 Bronze Medal, Faculty of Fine Arts of Chiang Mai University, Thailand, GPA 3.50.
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2013 Selected the best thesis artworks of the year, exhibited at the Queen’s Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand.
Volunteer works
2018 Black Cat Gallery worked as gallery assistance. The duties were installation and deinstallation of artworks and building the artwork’s packaging for transportation.
​2020 Vimokkharam Forest Hermitage, Buddhist Monastery. Helping the community build a natural wall.
Training and qualifications
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Working at Heights Training, Pinnacle Safety and Training.
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Construction Induction Training (White Card), WorkSafe Victoria.
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Working with Children Check, Melbourne State Government of Victoria.
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Conservation science techniques and training
Attenuated total reflectance - Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
(ATR-FTIR)
X-ray Fluorescence (XRF)
UV-Visible Spectrophotometer
Pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (PyGCMS)
QUV Accelerated Weathering Testing
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Fine arts skills
Drawing
Traditional Thai motif painting and techniques
Painting (oil, acrylic, water colour)
Printmaking (woodcut, paper block, monoprint, collagraph)
Sculpture (Bas-Relief, High-Relief)
Art installation and preparation for transporting
Work experience in art conservation field
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As part of my conservation training subjects, I had the chance to conduct painting treatments that employed conservation mythologies, from fundamental techniques to deep analysis using conservation science knowledge.
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Untitled (Landscape) Painting (no-date), I learned to observe and write a condition report with a practice of dry and wet cleaning using pH and conductivity analysis using Agarose gel. The practice tasks included infilling, inpainting, and securing the artwork after treatment.
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In St Columb’s Hawthorn church painting 2 (1887), I employed fundamental cleaning methods with new techniques learned, including strip lining, thread by thread tear repair on a canvas support, wooden stretcher and frame fixing, along with planning to work within a limitation of the time frame.
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Untitled (Farmyard Scene) (no-date), the treatment was done with four fellow students as a group project. Along with the techniques our group had learned, such as flattening, full lining using a hot table, and re-housing the painting, I also learnt to plan and work within a conservation team.
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Paid internship programme (October 2022–February 2023) in the private visual art collections of Natee Utarit in his studio in Bangkok. The programme focused on the artwork archiving of the artist’s collections between 1988 and present works. The artworks included paper works (printmaking and drawing), paintings, sculptures, stained glass, and embroidered fabrics. I was engaged to be part of the re-housing team for artwork transportation. A 200-kg bronze sculpture was sent from Thailand to Singapore with the aim of exhibiting in an annual art fair, Art SG.
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I visited Ngarranggarni (Gija) land in Western Australia and worked with Aboriginal collections at Warman Art Centre. The jobs were done with other conservation students and professors. We cleaned flood damaged storage that housed paintings that were created by Aboriginal elders, and planned for future storage management as well as looking after of the artworks.
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Paid work on a final treatment state of Cytheria (1977), Virginia Cuppaidge, a large rolled painting (196 x 606 cm), which belonged to Nicholas Thomson Gallery. The treatment application included stain removal, tear repair, inpainting, and painting re-housing for transportation.
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For my minor thesis project, my work undertook analysis of commercial varnishes available in Thailand by using ATR-FTIR and UV-Visible spectrophotometer techniques for analysing the composition of each brand of oil painting varnish for better understanding and use of these materials in fine arts applications.
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I assisted on a co-research project between Silapakron University and The University of Melbourne focusing on natural binders used in traditional Thai paintings. The paid project took two months investigating through conservation science techniques including, FTIR, XRF, QUV, ageing ovens in different conditions, and Py-GCMS.
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Private practice on Sunset (1820), focused on treating an unvarnished oil painting with heavy bloom, moisture damage, and aged conditions by analysis through research, employing FTIR and XRF techniques. The treatment took and adapted some techniques due to the limitation of equipment, such as humidification, flattening, re-stretching, and wooden stretcher fixing.
Work experience in art field
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Since 2017, I have been an artist in residency at Blender Art Studios, Melbourne. I have also worked as part of the Blender team to create murals of various scales in Victoria and across eastern Australia. My responsibilities include preparing paints and equipment for the projects, planning with the team members of the work procedures, and being a team members’s supporter to achieve the work smoothly and perfectly. The following lists are examples of recent murals I have painted.
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Urban Christmas Australian mural, commissioned by the City of Melbourne, North Melbourne (2023)
Cat and Dog with Seascape View at Mooroolbark Community Wall, Mooroolbark (2023)
Native Australian Flowers and Bird murals at Highview Christian Community College, Maryborough (2023)
Women FIFA Trophy Tour mural at the centre city, Melbourne (2023)
Girl with a Lake View, Lilydale (2022)
Water Tower mural at Augathella, Queensland (2020)
The swimming pool at Aquarena Aquatic and Leisure Centre, Doncaster (2019)
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Between 2014 and 2016, I worked as an artist’s assistant in a painter position at Navin Production, the private art studio of Navin Lawanchaikul in Chiang Mai, Thailand. My jobs were mainly to produce paintings using acrylic and oil paint mediums. I frequently worked on co-managed exhibitions and installed the artworks with the studio team.
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Between 2015 and 2016, I also ran my own studio called ‘HipPro Studio’, helping the creation and development of painting and drawing skills, from basic to advanced levels, for all art lovers, in Chiang Mai.
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In 2013, I additionally worked as a part-time art teacher at Montfort College, Chiang Mai, with the specific purpose of engaging students and enhancing their art skills, such as drawing and painting of final-year high school students, readying them for university admission.
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Between 2014 and 2019, after my Bachelor’s graduation, I was continuing to exhibit my paintings as a selected artist, including my solo show in 2014, “Chiang Mai Chai Miang” at Baan Tunk Art Centre, Chiang Mai. 2015, "Bipolar" by young artists from South Korea and Thailand at Whitespace Gallery, Bangkok. 2017, “26/10” The art exhibition of 26th Fine Art Alumni of 10th Anniversary, at Baan Tuek Art Centre, Chiang Mai, "Painting Time Exhibition" by students and lecturers from the Painting Division, Visual Arts Department, Faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, and “26+” at Baan Tunk Art Centre, Chiang Mai. 2018, “We are All the Same” at Black Cat Gallery, Melbourne. 2019, “Language of Memory” at Black Cat Gallery, Melbourne. 2019–2023, Annual Christmas group exhibition, at Dark Horse Experiment, Melbourne.
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Between 2009 and 2012, while I was studying in the Faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University, I regulartly participated in group exhibitions. In 2009, there were art exhibitions at Chanan Gallery, and “Tang Keup” at Panisa Gallery, Chiang Mai. 2010, “Weather or not” art exhibition at Mewjaidee Gallery, Chiang Mai; “M&C Print Making” art exhibition at Fine Art Gallery, Faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai; “Abstract Art” at Angkrit Gallery, Chiang Rai; and a group show at Koi Art Gallery, Bangkok. 2011, “4 days 4 classes 4 compositions” at Faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University; and “50x50” at Tita Gallery, Chiang Mai. 2012, A contemporary art exhibition “Smoothies City” at Baan Tunk Art Centre, Chiang Mai; 30th Anniversary Exhibition of Faculty of Fine Art, Chiang Mai University at CMU Art Center, Chiang Mai; and 30th Anniversary Exhibition of Painting Division faculty of Fine Art Chiang Mai University at The Art Gallery of school Architecture and Fine Arts Payao University.
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