by Shwe Tein

Rakhine Sailboats 2012
91x121 cm
Shwe Tein

Shwe Thein was born in Kyauk Taw, Rakhine State in 1981. He attended the State School of Fine Arts in Yangon from 2001 to 2004. He has joined many group shows, and works as an artist in Yangon.

This painting of Rakhine sailboats attests to the seafaring culture of Myanmar's western Rakhine State, a part of the country that was an independent kingdom until conquered first by Burma in 1785, and then by Britain in 1824. Today it remains something of a place apart, with a forceful local culture.