The essence of survival can be expressed in nothing more than a flip of paint across paper, metaphysical purity exposed by a brushstroke on canvas, art drawing upon the font of inspiration flowing below perception, finding inspiration on the edge of feeling, love, and desire.

On the Edge, an exhibition presently showing at Ardel’s DOB Gallery unites eight Thai and deportee artists for an international journey that charts the coast of art and maps the enormous interior of a new, unchartered geography thriving with instinctual spontaneity.

The brief given by the curator, Brian Curtain, was for the artists to find emancipation and joy in the plainness of the line, and this is what audiences will find as they move about the gallery and stare upon each offering. Viewing “On the Edge” is like navigating between the opposing poles of likelihood and impossibility, plotting a path between perceptive representations and indistinct abstraction.

While all eight artists are joyful in their own right, one ray of light shines brightest. This is the second Bangkok group show for Jonathan Gent, an English artist building a dreadful reputation on the international prospect, and here he presents nine works on paper and two on wood.