Richard Tsao's "Sanuk" Art
Article excerpt
In an interview with Hyperallergic, the artist known for his "Flood Room" paintings compares his decades-long practice to "the need for food."
This article is part of Hyperallergic’s 2026 Pride Month series, featuring interviews with queer and trans elder artists throughout June.
I first met Richard Tsao roughly 20 years ago when I was just getting started in the New York art world. Born and raised in Bangkok and based in New York for more than five decades, Tsao is best known for his labor-intensive "Flood Room" paintings, made through pouring, soaking, and layering of pigments, water, and marble dust into saturated abstractions. A single work can take years to make.
I’ve had the privilege of seeing these works in person over the decades, most recently at his solo exhibition daydreamin’ at Amelie A. Wallace Gallery at SUNY Old Westbury in New York, curated by Hyewon Yi, and at the group show How Asian Is It? at the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation, curated by Lily Wei. His works always feel like psychedelic moon landings, as sculptural as they are painterly. I’ve always had trouble photographing them, because photos can’t quite capture their depth of appeal.
I visited Taso in his studio in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, where he also maintains a fashion design practice, producing gorgeous, luminous Thai silk jackets, scarves, and coats. He sat cross-legged on the floor, “like a yogi,” he noted, and joked that I could make anything up to help him sound more interesting. I told him that wasn’t necessary: his confluence of work has always stayed with me.
In conversation, Taso describes artmaking as something close to hunger for food, planting a seed in the garden, or sanuk, a Thai word for play. We spoke about coming out gradually, becoming an artist, and his next phase of life as he prepares to leave New York City for Washington, DC. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Artist Richard Tsao and writer A.X. Mina in front of “Splash,” a 2010 water-based mixed media piece on canvas at a group show at Art Projects International (courtesy A.X. Mina)
Hyperallergic: When did you come out?
Richard Tsao: I don't really have a specific date. It was a process. It depended on who, what, where, and in what context.
The way I grew up in Asia at that time, we didn't talk about “me." We took our time to talk about me. It wasn't that we were repressed; it just wasn't something we did because it was considered impolite or out of cue. You didn't announce who you were. So it was much more subtle and slow for me. My good friends knew. I fell in love when I was young, in America, and then it was much more natural.
It was tougher coming out as an artist. I knew I wanted to be an artist, but I was scared. The big question of how are you going to support yourself? Your heart says you want to make art, so you have to figure out how. This concern troubled me a lot during my formative years and the many years after, and still does.