The first ever exhibition of political cartoons by Burmese artists opened on Wednesday in Bangkok.

The month-long exhibition, by cartoonists Harn Lay and Win Tun, is being staged at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. It features about 40 cartoons which have appeared in various publications and on the Internet.

The exhibition is intended to introduce the work of Burmese cartoonists to a wider audience and to highlight political events in Burma, according to the organizers.

“Cartoons amuse people but at the same time provoke awareness of what is happening around them,” says Harn Lay. The Shan ethnic artist, a graduate of Rangoon’s School of Fine Arts Academy, fled to neighboring Thailand following Burma’s pro-democracy uprising in 1988.

Harn Lay says politics made him a cartoonist. “If there is something wrong or someone is cheating and oppressing another I want to stand beside the victim and illustrate his story.” Harn Lay is a staff cartoonist for The Irrawaddy, which is publishing a book of his 100 best cartoons this month.

Win Tun followed Harn Lay into exile in 1990 after official attempts to censor his work and warnings of possible arrest. He now lives in New York, contributing his work mainly to the Japan-based weekly newsletter Voice of Burma under the pen-name Mr Burma.