German collector Thomas Kuhse’s Cameo Art Gallery channels a refined, international eye, meeting island demand as a residential building boom fuels appetite for quality art in new homes
By: Brianna Talbot
Long settled in Thailand, German art collector Thomas Kuhse steers Phuket’s Cameo Art Gallery with a discerning, cosmopolitan sensibility. Cameo presents tightly curated exhibitions that balance emerging voices with established names, drawing connections between European modern lineages, African sculpturing and contemporary Southeast Asian practice.
Kuhse’s eye favours clarity of form and material intelligence, whether in tactile works on paper, lyrical abstraction, giant stone sculptures or poised figurative studies. The gallery’s intimate scale encourages close looking, while its advisory arm guides clients on acquisitions, conservation, and thoughtful placement.
With Phuket in the midst of a residential home building boom, the island’s appetite for quality art is acute. Cameo responds with trusted sourcing, transparent provenance, and collector education, ensuring new homes are enriched by works that endure beyond fashion. Collaborations with architects and interior designers emphasise context, light, and longevity, pairing art with space rather than mere décor. In Kuhse’s hands, collecting becomes conversation: measured, inquisitive, confident.
THAILAND
Unsurprisingly Thai artists occupy much of the wall space at the gallery. Oil, acrylic and even paper collage, all on canvas, dominate with an evocative selection of portraits, but also land and sea scapes.
Paitoon works his magic on canvas with acrylic paint. His Dream in Red Blue portrait has a serene, closed-eyed blue face emerging against blazing red, veiled by cascading script-like drips. Paitoon’s acrylic meditation fuses modernity and mysticism, balancing tranquillity, vulnerability, and digital rain with luminous depth.
Bangkok based Thai artist Virut’s Vote Now electrifies with a neon-yellow backdrop, kaleidoscopic paper fragments forming a defiant portrait. Sunglasses mirror slogans and consumer detritus, fusing pop culture, politics and identity into sharp commentary.
‘Upcycling’ is a modern form of art, originating from Dada recycling roots in the 1990s and coined by German engineer Reiner Pilz. There are several striking pieces on display at Cameo, most notably from Thai upcycler Psiam. Featured here is Shockwave reimagining marine life through upcycled metal: yellow panels, rivets, gauges and springs to form steampunk fish. Dynamic contours suggest motion, blending industrial nostalgia with ecological commentary
EUROPE & THE MIDDLE EAST
Thomas has been collecting stunning pieces from Eastern European artists, particularly his support for Ukrainian talent forced away from their home country.
Sergaj’s Emma is an arresting acrylic-on-canvas portrait: luminous skin, smouldering gaze, and cascading brushstrokes. Electric blues, pinks and amber collide, balancing vulnerability and strength, abstraction and realism, breath and paint. This stunner would command any space it ends up living in !
Our cover portrait for this issue of exotiq I Phuket is the work of Iranian artist Babak Babaei. Broken Dream depicts shattered shards slicing through a hyperreal visage, eyes shimmering through fractured reflections. Babaei’s oil painting summons vulnerability and resilience, fusing precision with tension; beauty splintered, memory refracted, desire suspended – a dream broken.
AFRICA
Most of Thomas’ sculptures originate from Africa, especially Zimbabwe, where he has been a regular visitor. Sourcing art, large and small, you’ll find pieces suitable for downlit indoor pedestals as well as some mammoth structures for garden dramatisation.
Take for example Joseph Luckmore’s We Are One, dolomite carved into forms, blending Shona symbolism with contemporary minimalism. Chiselled planes meet polished luminosity, emphasising spiritual quietude, balanced mass and void, and the stone’s crystalline tactility.
With an 180 degree colour contrast Peter Gwisa’s Curiosity loops polished dark grey limestone into a poised ribbon, sensuous and inquisitive. Zimbabwean craftsmanship meets modern minimalism; light skims textured surfaces, suggesting movement, wonder, and a questioning gaze.
Staying in Zimbabwe the late sculptor Prosper Katanda’s springstone Three Fellows presents three tapering blades leaning in dialogue; edges meet torsions, capturing kinship, balance and ascent, while the stone’s sheen sensationally animates light and shadow.
Moving south into South Africa, the gallery displays several bronze sculptures from James Cook, who is enjoying a gathering reputation. Pictured here is his Relationship Paradox, which fashions a sinuous near-circle where fragmented visages emerge and recede. The figures gaze apart yet share a single flowing body, evoking intimacy and estrangement. Lyrical textures and patina suggest time’s weathering, while the open void embodies connection, absence, and unresolved longing simultaneously.
AND IN THE END
For Thomas, his passion for art is a labour of love and within the walls of the Cameo Art Gallery it is laid bare for all to see. Perhaps most importantly, his years of collecting allows him to foster trust. Clients return not just for new works, but for the pleasure of the process: the quiet thrill of discovery, the confidence of a well-considered acquisition.
In Phuket – a place where the world comes to slow down – Cameo under Thomas Kuhse offers a refined way to do just that. It invites you to look, to feel, and to take a piece of that experience home.
VISIT
Location: 185, 21 Moo7, Tambon Si Sunthon, Thalang District, Phuket 83110, Thailand
Phone: +66 65 239 8642
Website: cameo-artgallery.com
Hours: Open daily from 10am to 12pm & 1pm to 6pm, except public holidays