B.1946
Gallery
Statement
"I support the group exhibition because it is a very good idea that artists come together and exchange ideas especially if we become a community of artists".
Artist review
Some artists need a story to paint. Stories inspired by facts from their life. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge period is part of one's life story. But Vann Nath is not telling the story of his life but a period of war and fear that still haunts him. We never see a painting about his sickness, his homes, his present family, etc. One cannot expect Vann Nath to say "I have no more stories to tell" for he is a man trapped in a period of his country history. By allowing other subjects to come into his works it may help him to get out of this trap. With the upcoming Khmer Rouge tribunal in which people feels will bring about some kind of resolve for the Cambodian people who had suffered the atrocity of that regime, I cannot know what this tribunal will do for Vann Nath but he is and foremost a painter, and by focusing on the psychological violence in his paintings instead of the apparent physical tortures of the Khmer Rouge, Vann Nath's new works will bring out the psychological dimensions that is still persistent in the Cambodian memory today.
Sopheap Pich, artist
Exhibitions
- 2003: Group exhibition in Sweden.
- 2003: "The Spirit of Cambodia... a tribute", Providence College, Rhode Island, USA.
- 2000: "The Legacy of absence: a Cambodian story" Reyum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.