We visited the Museum Of Contemporary Art / MOCA Bangkok on June 29, 2025, Here are our thoughts on the experience, to help you decide whether to add MOCA Bangkok to your art travel planning.
What is MOCA Bangkok?
MOCA Bangkok is a private museum, founded by Boonchai Bencharongkul, who made his fortune in IT / telecom, but always loved art. The museum was officially opened in 2012, with a collection heavily based on works by Professor Silpa Bhirasri (Corrado Feroci), who founded what became the Silpakorn University, and those of his students.
Today, MOCA Bangkok’s collection of over 1,000 works is housed in a lovely contemporary 20,000 sq.m. building on Bangkok’s northwest periphery, sort of on the border of the Nonthaburi and Chatachuk districts. This makes it a kind of standalone destination, although if you plan well, you can pair it with a visit to Chatachuk Weekend Market.
Our 4-hour Visit to MOCA Bangkok
Admission
Admission was 300THBper person, (around $9USD) with an additional 180THB (~$5USD) pp for the Temporary Exhibition. As Seniors (over 60), we were offered complimentary general admission, but did have to spring for the special exhibit.
MOCA Bangkok has 5 floors of exhibit space, divided into roughly 5 sections, plus the usual: a small sculpture garden with amphitheater, a cafe, an auditorium, and a museum shop/bookstore.
The Exhibition halls are themed. As we usually do, we started at the top and progressed down. It’s easier on our knees, and often means smaller crowds – at least to start. So we’ll talk about our visit that way.
Fifth Floor: International Collections
The International Collections rooms are a combination of temporary and permanent display. The latter, the Richard Green “atmosphere” room, houses works from the later 1800s, what the museum calls Queen Victoria’s Romantic Period. Not our style, but some very finely rendered works and a few names we recognized.
There is also a hall we assume houses rotating works. For our visit, it held an odd mixture of floral-themed pieces and male-gaze female nudes. I missed whatever connection the curator had in mind, and there was no text explaining the choices.
Fourth Floor: The Great Artists
At time of writing, this gallery was dedicated to one of Thailand’s renowned artists, Thawan Duchanee, whose works are an intriguing blend of traditional figures and forms rendered in a sort of morphing traditional/contemporary way. While we aren’t experts on Buddhist imagery by any means, several of the works were very powerful.
There is also a section entitled “The Three Kingdoms – Heaven, Middle Earth and Hell”, dominated by three very large paintings by Sompop Butarad, Panya Wijinthanasan and Prateep Kochua, respectively.
LOTS going on in these works and we took a good amount of time, particularly with the Middle Earth piece, as it contains a number of references we could easily recognize, such as Picasso’s Guernica, Elvis, Francis Bacon, Maoist propaganda and more.
There were also some beautifully-rendered paintings along a side wall depicting some Buddhist Jataka tales, which were a perfect complement. A strong room, with benches pro3viding space for confortable contemplation.
We mostly enjoyed this floor.
Third Floor: Art of Fantastic Imagination
Curation of the third floor galleries was more even, with a discernable through-line, even if you don’t know Thai or Buddhist literature or history.
Several rooms were heavily surrealist bordering on grotesque, and while we may not know the backstory, the works are certainly engrossing.
There were a couple headscratchers but overall an enjoyable soak.
One room is dedicated to the Khun Chang – Khun Phaeng epic, a sad lovers-triangle folk story / poem thought to have originated in the 1600s. Here, it’s presented in full-sized reconstructions of 1800s Thai houses with traditional furnishings and artifacts complete with lifelike/size sculpted renderings of the three main characters, alongside beautiful drawings and highly animated paintings. From a crafts perspective – the woodworking alone, I loved this space.
Sadly, there is one small panel explaining what you’re seeing. If I hadn’t told you, and you’re not familiar with the poem, you’d miss the whole point. A tremendous effort otherwise.
Second Floor: Religion, Faiths & Beliefs
The second floor is loaded with artifacts, particularly Hindu Ramayana Masks and Shadow Puppets from across SE Asia. If you have the time, you could easily spend an hour just with these fascinating displays.
There are also religiously-themed paintings and sculpture, such as my favorite Ganesh (see our socials for more across Nepal, Thailand, Bali etc). Honestly, while the works were mostly lovely, we didn’t fully grasp the curation here, either.
Ground Floor: National Artists and Temporary Exhibition
The ground floor has a couple permanent exhibit spaces, dedicated to Chalood Nimsamer, Paitun Muangomboon, and Khien Wimsiri, and includes the sculpture garden (which was inaccessible during our visit).
Lots of (too many for the space) figurative bronze sculptures that weren’t our style. You may love them!
MRKREME solo exhibition: The Bootleg Show
The ground floor also houses decently-sized temporary exhibit galleries, all occupied during our visit by The Bootleg Show, a solo exhibition of kind of pop/toy art by Varagun Chonthanapipat, aka MRKREME.
Again, not usually our thing, as many such efforts by artists like Murakami, KAWS, even Jeff Koons often feel blatantly commercial. And, as nomads, we’re no longer collectors of anything other than memories and photos.
But there’s the rub; in this exhibition, the artist actively wrestles with the problem of creativity and originality vs. production and commercialism. Unfortunately, if you skipped the major wall didactic at the exhibit’s entrance, this may be lost on you until the final room, which contains photocopies of the artists’ notes: musings on the subject and how he works through the dilemma. See our Reel HERE
Museum Of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Bangkok Summary
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
What? Where’s that 5th Star!?
The lack of didactics (never thought I’d complain about not *enough* didactics), uneven curation, and other issues prevent us from giving a full 5* review.
There’s also a curious over-display thing happening, as if MOCA Bangkok has run out of storage space. Hallways, elevator lobbies etc. are seemingly haphazardly filled with artworks – many so closely spaced as to have no “breathing room”. Works in these areas especially lack context – why are they there?!
Lighting is generally good, accessibility is good, and restrooms are cleans and modern.
In all, it’s a fine museum, and one we recommend visiting if you have the time. It’s an especially good choice to beat sweltering heat or monsoon rains.