Information — Lily Onga

Lily Onga was born in Bangkok, Thailand in 1997 👶🏻

Lily Onga is a Thai artist, illustrator, and animator based in Tokyo, Japan. She began producing picture books during her studies at Chulalongkorn University and later Musashino Art University, where she developed her own design logics. Her practice centers on man-made objects and staged spaces that hint at a sense of activity. Warm, slightly mysterious, and humorous, her works follow their own peculiar logic.

Her preferred medium is colored pencil on paper. Lily observes antique shops, museum collections, furniture in people’s homes, patisserie cases, and tools in craftsmen’s workshops. Her ideas begin as small sketches and handwritten notes, and grow through hands-on, analog processes. Influenced by still-life painting and catalogue-style illustration, she documents objects and interiors while quietly inserting narrative, humor, and hidden systems. Her works are often described as tender and oddly reassuring, like drinking a cup of hot chocolate.

🔖Education
2019 Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design, Chulalongkorn University
2025 Master’s Degree in Science of Design, Musashino Art University

🪢Major Awards
2025 🥇Gold Cube, “ADC 104th Annual Awards (New York Art Directors Club)”
2025 🥈Runner-Up Grand Prize, “SICF26” (Spiral Independent Creator Fair)
2025 Excellence Award, Musashino Art University Graduation Works
2023 Bangkok Art & Culture Center Award, “Bangkok Illustration Fair”
2019 🏆Grand Prize, “Degree Show 2019”

🍈Major Exhibitions
2025 “SICF26” EXHIBITION Division (Spiral Hall / Tokyo)
2024 Group Exhibition “Visual Biography” (BACC / Bangkok)
2023 Group Exhibition “Kamiwaza Daisho Selected Works” (Tokushu Tokai Paper / Tokyo)
2023 Group Exhibition “Pupa and Leaf” (Hospital Gallery, Tokushima Uni. Hospital / Tokushima)
2023 “Bangkok Illustration Fair” (BACC / Bangkok)
2021 “Bangkok Art Book Fair” (Bangkok CITY CITY Gallery / Bangkok)
2019 Group Exhibition “Storytelling Project by Bangkok Art Book Fair” (Thailand Creative & Design Centre at Commons Ideo Q / Bangkok)
2019 Group Exhibition “Degree Show 2019 Finalists” (Siam Discovery / Bangkok)