B.1970
Gallery
Statement
"Relying on intuition, process, and natural materials as a way to create forms that alludes to different ideas is central to the pain and pleasure of my art making."
Artist review
It is only when Sopheap Pich returned to Cambodia that he found the material with which he could identify. Sopheap Pich's sculptures are virtual architectures constructed with bamboo strands that the artist weaves and attaches with a thin copper wire. The resulting lattice is not a fence, but an invitation. Your spirit enters the sculpture through one of its many gaps, flies over the interior's surface, floats in a stream of air. You may even meet another figure before leaving like a phantom, brushing lightly the bamboo frame.
Sopheap and bamboo have in common lightness and flexibility. Sopheap bends the bamboo into shapes inspired by nature, or by the artist's life. The bamboo resists the sculptor and dictates its desires. After the struggle, the sculptor and the material become one to create a world populated by metaphorical shapes, expressing fulfillment and sensuality, weightlessness and monumentality.
Like a shadow theatre, the sculpture projects palaces and forests on the ground. It is the same exploration of light and space one can admire in his paintings.
All Sopheap Pich's art work emanates a peaceful power.
Margherita del Balzo, November 2005.
Exhibitions
- 2005: "Transit" Sopheap Pich and Michèle Vanvlasselaer, at Java Café & Gallery, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
- 2005: "Première Vue" Sopheap Pich and Linda Saphan and others artists, at Passage de Retz, Paris, France.
- 2005: "Je/Jeu" French Cultural Center Yangon, Myanmar. Eikaza Cho, Than Htay Maung, Lut Lat Ein, Linda Saphan and Sopheap Pich.
- 2004: "Pdao", French Cultural Center Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
- 2004: "Guide", French Cultural Center Siem Reap, Cambodia.
- 2004: "Continuity", at Shinta Mani, Siem Reap, Cambodia.
- 2004: "Guide", (Lightness piece with Linda Saphan) French Cultural Center Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
- 2004: "Meik Sratum", Silapak Khmer Amatak, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
- 2003: "Excavating the Vessels", Java Gallery, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
- 2002: "Recent works", The Brewery, Boston, USA.
- 2001: "Subject Picture", The Optimistic, Chicago, USA.
- 2000: "Just Good Art 2000", Hyde Park Arts Center, Chicago, USA.
- 2000: "Memory: Personal and Social Testimonies", The Augusta Savage Gallery, UMass, USA.
- 1999: "Altered Object", Hyde Park Arts Center, Chicago, USA.
- 1999: "Young Talents II", Contemporary Arts Workshop, Chicago, USA.
- 1999: "MFA Thesis Exhibition", G2, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA.
- 1999: "Yellow/Face", Gallery Pilson East, Chicago, USA.
- 1999: "Cows on Parade", a collaborative project with J. Zakin and S. Biggers for The Chicago Park District exhibited at the Field Museum Campus, Chicago, USA.
- 1998: "Presidential Dinner Exhibition", The Art Institute of Chicago, USA.
- 1997: "Empty Wooden Cigarette Boxes From Cambodia", The Augusta Savage Gallery, USA.
- 1995: "Recent Paintings", Gallery Del Sol, Miami, USA.
- 1995: "BFA Thesis Show", The Augusta Savage Gallery, Umass, USA.
Education
- 1999: MFA in painting : The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).
- 1995: BFA in painting: The University of Massachusetts, USA, inluding one year at l'École Nationale d'Art de Cergy Pontoise (France).
Awards
- 2001: The Vermont Studio Center, one month artists-in-residence fellowship in october, USA.
- 1999: The Ryerson Painting Award, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA.
- 1990-94: The Wilbur Ward Scholarship, Umass, USA.
- 1993: Junior & Senior show, Exposition d'Arts Européens.
- 1992: Foundation show, Umass, USA.