About

Kung Mana Tongmee was born and grew up in Songkhla, the rural rice farming province of southern Thailand.

As a child he remembers running through rice fields and swimming in rivers where the children caught fish to eat and crab to sell at the local market to help the family. He learned his fantastic Thai cookery at his mother’s knee as she cooked food to sell to neighbours to help supplement their meagre farming income.

There wasn’t much time or many resources for art in those days but the beauty of the countryside, the vivid tropical florals and the strongly rooted Buddhist culture inform and inspire his work to the present day.

Kung is now a well known artist in his native country but his first exposure to the art world was not until in his twenties, when he moved to Bangkok to take care of his mother; by then paralysed from a severe stroke. The family got by selling clothes in the famous Jatujak weekend market, and it was there that Kung came into contact with the dynamic and exciting network of Bangkok artists, and began his painting career, which has since flourished.

Now he calls Koh Phangan home: an idyllic paradise island nestled in the Gulf of Thailand where he and his partner run their restaurant, Luna Lounge, and raise their daughter. His paintings have sold to people all over the world, including Australia, Germany and the USA.

This is Kung’s third trip to England, a place he says he feels connected with, perhaps from a previous life………..