The toy soldiers are often depicted in Natee Utarit’s creative oeuvre to symbolise the political landscape in his native country, Thailand. On offer here is an etching on paper illustrating four toy soldiers in random configuration. As one of the leading contemporary artists in Southeast Asia, Natee Utarit places great emphasis in his understanding of painting, particularly Western classical art as his interest lies in assimilating his cultural roots into his works that covers a myriad of themes. He makes no apology for unabashedly using European art as entry points into his investigations and comparisons, with a sense of irony and depth. He investigates “the truth of painting and explore some hypothesis of western aesthetics in a Thai cultural context” in most of his works from 1999 to 2006. An accomplished painter, Natee Utarit graduated with a BFA from Silpakorn University in 1992 majoring in painting, sculpture and graphic art. He has exhibited extensively around the world holding regular solo exhibitions in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Natee has participated in the Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Queensland Art Gallery, Australia in 1999 and ARS 01 in Helsinki, Finland (2001). The Singapore Art Museum hosted a major mid-career survey exhibition for Natee called Natee Utarit: After Painting in October 2010. His work was also included in the fringe component of the 2011 Venice Biennale called Future Pass-From Asia to the World. Natee’s work is in public collections namely Queensland Art Gallery Australia, Singapore Art Museum, LaSalle SIA College of the Arts Singapore, Fine Art Museum of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Canvas Foundation in Amsterdam. He has also worked on public commissions such as the Metropolitan Hotel in Bangkok.