Name: Remembering Mikey Jiraros 1997-2021
Start: 2025-05-14T15:00:00+07:00
End: 2025-05-14T17:00:00+07:00
Location: Banyan Tree Bangkok

I am moving this event to correspond with Mikey's next birthday.
He didn't live very long, but he affected the lives of thousands of people around the world ... through his charisma, his deep empathy for people of every kind, his colorful lifestyle, and most of all through the genius of his art, which found the light in the darkest corners of his soul.
As Mikey's adoptive father I lived through some of those dark corners with him but in the end, he was a mystery. All our love could not bring him back from where he longed to go.
I deeply appreciate all the things people have been doing for him in the last few days. But I also want to say that when we give gifts to the dead, it is often more for our own comfort than for that of the one who has passed on.
That's why I want to do this event. I want us to remember the incredible gifts that Mikey gave to us — not just the tears but the laughter and the smiles — and the art, a window into a rarefied inner world at once nightmarish yet transcendent — his art which is a gift to all of us.
May 14th would have been his 24th birthday. My childhood friend Ho Kwon Ping is generously letting me use the ballroom of his hotel, the Banyan Tree, to celebrate his life. I will ask many of his friends to talk about him, and some of our musician friends will play music, and I'll gather what I can of his art and I'll try to borrow some of the art that is in private collections and put in on display.
The event will be open to all his friends and we will have a zoom link and a livestream connection. I've tried to pick a time that is not too inaccessible for our friends around the world.
White Envelopes: Mikey once said he'd love there to be a nice printed glossy book of his art. We appreciate all donations and that is what they will go towards: getting good digital scans of his entire oeuvre and publishing a beautiful edition of his art and perhaps also making some prints available. (I'll put up paypal and account information for people who can't attend).