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4 Contemporary South Asian Diaspora Artists You Should Know

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4 Contemporary South Asian Diaspora Artists You Should Know

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Since the 1960s the art world has seen a growing number of artists from around the world, many of whom leave their home countries. These artists negotiate with global trends while becoming hyper-aware of how their racial and cultural identities are perceived in the west. Here we will look at four South Asian diaspora artists their fascinating artworks.

The Gray Zone of the South Asian Diaspora

Migration is one of the many fundamentals upon which Modern and Pre-modern societies have built themselves. Migrants from South Asia have been on the move since early Premodern times (before the 1800s) supplying themselves to a larger demand for military, artisanal, and agrarian labor. The term South Asia is used to indicate the southern part of the Asian Continent. This includes Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and the Maldives.

Diaspora artists are those who migrate from one part of the world to another. They often inhabit a gray zone, that of outsider and insider both. These contemporary artists challenge the notion of cultural boundary zones, belonging, language, and homemaking. What precedes them is their South Asian identity, and what follows is their hybridity.

Sunil Gupta and Queer South Asia

Born in 1953 in India, photographer Sunil Gupta spent his teens in Montreal. He studied photography in New York in the 1970s, and in 1983 received a Master's in London where he lived for the next two decades. Afterwards he returned to India in 2005, despite the channels of risk he faced due to the public health crisis and the criminalization of homosexuality at the time. In 2013 he relocated to London.

Gupta navigates the grey zone of an insider-outsider space not just in the West but also as a gay man in his home country. In his early series called Exiles (1986), the artist reclaims Indian history and public spheres as sites of queer sexuality and identity by locating gay men in iconic architectural and historic spaces. When Exiles was shot, homosexual acts were punishable by up to ten years in prison, and gay life in India was heavily concealed.

Gupta's mural-size work, the Trespass series, created in the early 1990s (1990-92) explores the hybrid intersections of multiple social and personal histories. Utilizing digital technology, Gupta combined his photographs, archival images, ads, and other popular source material. In the years 1990-92, Gupta turned his eye to the alienness of being a stranger in a strange land, focusing on the experiences of the South Asian diaspora in a newly unified Europe. He undertook this project in Berlin, juxtaposing historical photographs of Nazi Germany, war monuments, advertisements, and photographs of unidentified South Asians, along with portraits of himself and his British partner.

Gupta's work has and continues to negotiate with his diasporic identity by exploring the complex interaction of sexuality with all the other factors that migration brings. He shows how queer life finds itself at odds with the orthodoxies of both his home and host cultures. That's what makes his work particularly interesting.

Shahzia Sikander's New Miniatures

When it comes to the role played by South Asian Diaspora artists in the reinvention of traditional practices and techniques, Shahzia Sikander always comes to mind. Pakistani artist Shahzia Sikander takes the miniature art form, essentially a courtly practice, and reinvents it using new scales and technologies, cultivating the hybridism of a diaspora artist. Miniature or Manuscript painting has long been associated with South Asian and Middle Eastern art history. Inspired by the Persian Safavid dynasty (1501-1736) it made its way to South Asia. This miniature art fused with indigenous forms and styles, namely Jaina miniature painting (12th to 16th century) and Pala painting (11th & 12th century). This led to the formation of the well-known Mughal miniatures (16th to mid-19th century) which greatly inspired Sikander.

Sikander led the miniature revival movement as a young student at the National College of Arts, Lahore, in the early 1990s, and later moved to the United States. She has often complained about the art establishment in Pakistan, where she said that a number of people viewed her as an outsider at home. Sikander only presented her work for the first time in Lahore, the city where she grew up, in 2018. Sikander uses idioms from medieval and early modern Islamic and South Asian manuscript painting, transforming it into a tool for critical inquiry.

Sikander's Maligned Monsters I, (2000) borrows its name from Partha Mitter's book Much Maligned Monsters (1977). Mitter's study charts the history of European reactions to Indian Art, highlighting the so-called 'exotic' Western interpretations of non-Western societies. In her take, archetypes of the divine feminine are presented shoulder to shoulder. The figure on the right is draped in the form of the Graeco-Roman Venus attempting to conceal her nudity, while the figure on the left wears an antariya, an ancient garment from the subcontinent. By bringing together these two decapitated female forms from two vastly different cultures, joining them through Persian Calligraphic forms, we see the work as Sikander's personal negotiation with her diasporic identity.

In Many Faces of Islam (1999), created for the New York Times, two central figures hold between them a piece of American currency inscribed with a quote from the Quran: Which, then, of your Lord's blessing do you both deny? The surrounding figures speak to the shifting global alliances between Muslim leaders and the American empire and capital. The work includes portraits of Muhammad Ali Jinnah ( founder of Pakistan), Malcolm X, Salman Rushdie, and Hanan Ashrawi (spokesperson for the Palestinian Nation), among others. The Many Faces of Islam brings forth the reality that after globalization, no nation or culture lives in a vacuum. Now more than ever, we are faced with the pervasive diasporic viewpoint.

Runa Islam Smashing Teapots

The tensions of having dual or multiple heritages surface very clearly in Bangladeshi-British artist Runa Islam's work. Her first major video work was Be the First to See What You See as You See It (2004) and it was nominated for the 2008 Turner Prize. It features a woman whose spatial interaction with her surrounding objects criticizes the illusion of a unified cultural identity.

In the film the viewers see a woman in a confined room, observing porcelain. To the viewer, the woman is as much on display as the porcelain on the table. After a while, the woman begins having tea in a peculiarly British manner. After moments of tense silence, the woman begins pushing the porcelain pieces off the tables.

According to John Clarke, a reputed scholar of Modern and Contemporary Asian Art, it is no coincidence that Islam chose to smash teapots and cups, which are traditional symbols of the British gentry. The work can be read as a critique of England's colonial past. Islam confronts her current situation as a Bangladeshi-British artist while reflecting on Britain's colonial impact on Bangladesh and its confinements.

Mariam Ghani and the Index of the Disappeared

Collaborations among diaspora artists often bring to the surface the unique racial and religious awareness the diaspora identity brings to certain individuals. A year after 9/11, 760 men had disappeared in the United States. These people were classified as special interest detainees by the Department of Justice and were largely men between the ages of 16-45 from South Asian, Arab, and Muslim countries that were residing in the US.

In response, Afghan American artist Mariam Ghani and Indian-origin American artist Chitra Ganesh devised an Index of the Disappeared in 2004, an ongoing, research-driven, multipart investigation into the post-9/11 security state's racialization of disappearance and its documentation. Now into its eighteenth year, Ganesh and Ghani's art project exists in two principal forms. First, as a physical archive of post- 9/11 disappearances encompassing DVDs, articles, news, legal briefs, reports, zines, and ephemera. Second, the project has publicly appeared through the form of organized events and art installations, in response to the War on Terror. To date, Index of the Disappeared has been researched within accounts of a broader artistic counterculture after September 11.

South Asian Diaspora and Hybrid Novelty

All four artists share in their work the issues of belongingness, and constant questioning of the idiom of home, revealing the multi-layered nature of human cross-cultural experiences. These artists proactively engage the concept of a nation and the illusionistic nature of the many forms of nationalism, be it fundamentalism, colonialism, or imperialism. The hybridity of the South Asian Diaspora is very similar to Homi K Bhabha's hybridity which translates elements that are neither the One nor the Other but something else. This brings a certain newness to the world. Bhabha has even ascribed such hybridity to the work of the sculptor Anish Kapoor.

Diasporic artists often bring novelty to the world offering unique perspectives. Every geographical coordinate intermingles with its own unique cultural upbringing, which is then confronted with its far-off relatives. And when such confrontations have artistic modes of thought they bring about artists like the ones mentioned above.

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4 Contemporary South Asian Diaspora Artists You Should Know

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Learn more about Contemporary South Asian Diaspora artists, whose work explores themes like home, migration, gender, sexuality, and race.

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Lee Seahyun's work, which seems like beautiful Utopia at the first glance, also delivers human-destructed distopia at the same time. Looked from a distance, his painting seems like a simple landscape, however, in fact, his work conveys collapsing buildings and traces of cannonballs, which apparently displays grief memories of Korea. Lee enables the audiences to face the bitter reality that Korea is the only state that is divided and to lead the spectators to rethink about the destroyed territory. Between Red series, which cannot be seen when the viewers only focused on the red color itself. The viewers can track the artist's deep concerns within the works' context so that he can be beyond towards the restrictions that he had faced by using only one color.

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Lee Seahyun's work, which seems like beautiful Utopia at the first glance, also delivers human-destructed distopia at the same time. Looked from a distance, his painting seems like a simple landscape, however, in fact, his work conveys collapsing buildings and traces of cannonballs, which apparently displays grief memories of Korea.

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Sun Xun: One of China's Most Ambitious Young Artists | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 46

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Filipino artist

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Teacher Education-Asian Art History. Really text heavy though

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Teacher Education-Asian Art History. Really text heavy though

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The Story of Rama

In this unit, students are introduced to the basic background of Balinese Hinduism and to one of its main texts, the Ramayana.
Download PDF (free)

Warrior Kings and Divine Jesters: Indonesian Rod Puppets

This packet is designed to give an introduction to the world of Indonesian three-dimensional rod puppet theater ( wayang golek) and to the stories told in performances using these puppets, including Islamic and Javanese historical tales as well as Indonesian versions of the Ramayana, the epic story of the hero Rama.
Download PDF (free)

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The Story of Rama In this unit, students are introduced to the basic background of Balinese Hinduism and to one of its main texts, the Ramayana.

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Contemporary Cambodian artists-post Phmer Rouge

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Contemporary Cambodian artists-post Phmer Rouge

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Young Cambodian artists confront painful Khmer Rouge past

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Lille exhibition showcases how a generation born after Pol Pot's murderous regime are reacting to history

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5 contemporary Khmer artist's that explore Cambodia's changing society

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5 contemporary Khmer artist's that explore Cambodia's changing society

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Culture Trip

Site/Cambodia, was an exhibition at Karin Weber Gallery, Hong Kong, which presented five contemporary Cambodian artists for whom 'site' is integral to their practice. Mao Soviet, Anida Yoeu Ali, Kim Hak, Sera and Srey Bandaul all navigate sites of change, displacement, melancholy, identity and spirituality, which speak to a Cambodia in transition.

Mao Soviet, The Black Wood | Courtesy Karin Weber Gallery

Space, and memory of space, are themes that transverse the art of Cambodian artists who grew up in the country, and those who have returned from the diaspora carrying their memories of war and genocide, which have been transposed on to new realities. Also of importance is the identification of new spaces existing somewhere in-between and transnational, as Cambodia begins to profit from entering the global market.

The Cambodia of today is not what it was yesterday, or what it will be tomorrow. The soundtrack of the urban centers is a cacophony of building noise. Sometimes it is only at lunch, when tools are put down, in this small reprieve, we realize how constant is the change. The landscape is evolving; big buildings, mansions and industrial expansion, boutique coffee shops for the emerging middle class and expat stalwart.

The displacement of people amidst this change can, in fact, sometimes seem altogether invisible. People and communities - evicted, moved, sometimes forcibly, to sites further outside the city. What remains, however temporarily, is the evidence of these large communities in debris from their homes. A testament to their existence. An archive. It is this that is found in Battambang-based artist Mao Soviet's work The Black Wood. Using abandoned objects from the sites of eviction, his work brings into plain view the narrative of those displaced in the new Cambodia.

Kim Hak, Daun Penh | Courtesy Karin Weber Gallery

Next, we have Daun Penh, in which Kim Hak speaks directly to a better-known story of displacement. What Hak is documenting is the eviction of over two million Cambodians from the capital city, Phnom Penh, by the Khmer Rouge, which began on the 17th of April 1975 and resulted in genocide. Photographing Phnom Penh in the moody rain from the back of a tuk-tuk, thereby creating a cinematic letterboxing composition, Hak is actually referencing the black fabric that was used to cover the victim's eyes before they were executed. In a poetic call and response for this exhibition, Hak's video calls for 'the return home' of those who departed to 3rd countries like America, Australia and France.

This call is heard by Khmer-American artist Anida Yoeu Ali who now lives and works in Phnom Penh. Growing up as a Khmer Muslim in Chicago she is drawn to explore her transnational identity between two sites. Consequently, she tends to locate herself both inside and outside of both, in the literal and societal spaces of her landscape performances. 'I am constantly navigating a kind of insider/outsider perspective, often switching between the two depending on the situation,' says Ali.

Anida Yoeu Ali | Courtesy Karin Weber Gallery

Séra turns to look at 'site' from a perspective of loss. His paintings capture iconically Cambodian landscapes, such as Angkorian temples, stupas and even the traditional form of dance, with a certain melancholia. Born in 1961, Sera left Cambodia for France as the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh. His early chaotic memories characterize his frenetic style.

Artist Srey Bandaul looks inward, seeing the body as a metaphorical site of tension. Creating intestinal forms he speaks to the cycle of life, whereby the psychological meets the laws of cause and effect. Using fabrics synonymous with daily life and the protection of the body - the kroma, the sarong and mosquito netting - he locates this tension in the local communal consciousness, as well as more broadly within South Asia. He creates a critical dialogue about the politic of the local and the global. The digestion of the 'outside' or global influences into the main body creates visible ruptures in the intestinal form. Reflecting on a global instability, like the economic crisis of 2009 and the growing reliance on foreign investment and cultural commodities, Srey asks, 'How can we protect the people; how can they be independent?'

Sera | Courtesy Karin Weber Gallery

Cambodia as a site is loaded with contention of space, layered in memory and the 'now' personalized, communal and in transit. Using 'site', we bring space and memory together with visions and responses from local artists and returning Diaspora. This exhibition makes connections in site, the personalized and public. It demonstrates what sites can be owned, shared, celebrated, connected to body and its life cycle, psychology and environment, and what sites are prohibited to speak about.
Text and Images provided by Karin Weber Gallery

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5 Contemporary Artists Who Explore Cambodia's Changing Society

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Culture Trip Site/Cambodia, was an exhibition at Karin Weber Gallery, Hong Kong, which presented five contemporary Cambodian artists for whom 'site' is integral to their practice. Mao Soviet, Anida Yoeu Ali, Kim Hak, Sera and Srey Bandaul all navigate sites of change, displacement, melancholy, identity and spirituality, which speak to a Cambodia in transition.

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Best Contemporary Art Galleries in Cambodia to visit

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Best Contemporary Art Galleries in Cambodia to visit

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The Best Contemporary Art Galleries in Cambodia

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Discover the treasures of Cambodia's defiant and dynamic art scene with our guide to the 10 best contemporary art galleries in Phnom Penh.

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Cambodian female artists challenging gender roles

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Cambodian female artists challenging gender roles

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Cambodian Female Artists Confront Gender Roles with Contemporary Art

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Find out how Cambodian female artists are opposing traditional gender roles in Cambodia and fighting for gender equality through their powerful art.

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Interview with Cambodian Artist Leang Seckon: Painting Past and Present

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See the work of contemporary artist Leang Seckon, whose fantastical paintings are inspired by Cambodian iconography and the country's troubled past.

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Top Contemporary Artists from Cambodia 2017

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Top Contemporary Artists from Cambodia 2017

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Sothy Chhim

Born in 1969 in Kandal province, Sothy Chhim is one of the country's leading artists. Having spent a decade studying at Phnom Penh's Royal University of Fine Arts - where he now teaches - he mastered traditional Khmer painting. However, he has since moved into abstract and contemporary art, with his work featuring in exhibitions across the globe, including Singapore, France and America. His work is characterised by his diverse use of styles, which focus on social issues and Buddhism.

A stalwart of the contemporary art scene, Em Riem dares to be different. Originally from Kandal province, he studied at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh and then at France's School of Fine Arts in Saint-Etienne, and Higher National School of Decorative Arts of Paris. The multi-disciplinary artist's fashion sense is as loud as some of his work and he has also mastered sculpture, ceramics, and interior and fashion design. He works with a range of materials, from rattan sofas to portraits of Khmer Rouge victims and acrylic paintings of rural Cambodia. He has his own gallery, X-em Galerie.

Sokhorn Meas

Sokhorn Meas trained as an interior designer at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, but fine art has always been at the forefront of his mind. After graduating, he started experimenting with sculpture, painting and staging live performances. In 2006, he held his debut solo exhibition at Phnom Penh's Java Creative Café, launching his career as a full-time artist. Drawing inspiration from his surroundings, Sokhorn is not afraid to tackle social issues rife in his homeland. He is famous for his use of waste materials and objects, such as barbed wire, rotting wood and plastic.

Dina Chhan is one of Cambodia's only female sculptors and leading painters. As a youngster she harboured an early passion for the arts, using the monsoon-soaked ground that turned to clay, to carve toy buffalos and dolls. Chhan uses her art to address topics such as wildlife, nature, and social issues in Cambodia, making use of bold colours that are her signature. Her passion for creativity has led to her teaching art to children and teenagers in several of the capital's orphanages and international schools. Born in a refugee camp on the Thai border in the wake of the Khmer Rouge, Dina has also used her work to work raise awareness of Cambodia's hidden landmines - which cause a huge issue to this day and litter many areas of the border. She was the only female Cambodian artist to take part in the UN Mine Action Gateway, where she visited mine-affected provinces to see how Cambodia is tackling explosives, and presented her interpretation of the issues through sculpture.

Borin Teang

The wispy ethereal apsaras that delicately float in Teang Borin's paintings feature on the walls of many of the capital's restaurants, bars and cafes, and on the walls of many residents' homes. Affectionately known as Din, Borin would sit on the dusty tracks in his Kampot village as a child and trace drawings into the ground with a stick. Growing up, he developed an interest in all things creative, from painting to interior design. In 2000, he moved to Phnom Penh to study architecture, and it was during this five-year course that he became fascinated with apsara dancers, who enchanted audiences with their graceful gestures. He created a stunning series of abstract paintings of the performers, which caught the eyes of those in the art scene. In 2015, he opened DinArt in Phnom Penh.

Sareth Svay

Sareth Svay is one of the founding fathers of Cambodia's contemporary art movement. Born in 1972 in Battambang, he started making art as a teenager living at the Site Two refugee camp near the Thai border. Drawing and painting became his daily escape from the violence he witnessed growing up under the Khmer Rouge regime. Inspired by NGOs using art therapy in the camps, Sareth and a group of pals pledged to play their part in helping their country heal once they returned to their homeland. In 1994, Sareth co-founded Phare Ponleu Selpak, an NGO and art school in Battambang that is behind popular attraction Phare, the Cambodian Circus. Sareth's range of sculptures and installations are made using materials and processes associated with war, such as metals, uniforms and camouflage. In 2016, he scooped the top prize at Singapore's Prudential Eye Awards and secured a show at London's prestigious Saatchi Gallery the following year.

David "Davido" Myers

David Myers, known on the streets as Davido, is on his way to becoming one of the country's most prominent urban artists. Making his first proper public outing at the inaugural Cambodia Urban Art Festival in 2015, Davido's striking work is inspired by Picasso and the cubism art movement. It heavily features animals created using bold, colourful geometric shapes. Davido is mostly self-taught, learning his skills from YouTube. In 2016, some of his work was displayed in an exhibit in France.

Sophorn Chan

Sophorn Chan was born in Prey Veng province in 1984 with a passion for art. His desire to create saw him secure a master's degree in South Korea, majoring in art. With Khmer culture and arts almost wiped out by the Khmer Rouge, Sophorn has made it his mission to revive the ancient artforms that the country was once famous for. One of his many artistic skills is lacquer, which has formed part of the country's heritage since the Angkor period.

Cheanick Nov

Painter Nov Cheanick was born in 1989 at Site Two refugee camp in Thailand, and is one of Cambodia's foremost emerging artists. Influenced by meditation and the breathing cycle as a tool for greater awareness, Nov explores the undefined boundaries of perception through his work. During his education, he was drawn away from the realms of realism and towards abstract art, seeking less control and predictability, abandoning the brush completely in favour of painting with a traditional wooden broom. Over the years, his references and images have become increasingly abstract. Cheanick's latest solo exhibition, Cycle, at Rosewood Phnom Penh, surveys a decade of the artist's work, from early figurative drawing to recent abstract paintings.

As another of Phare Ponleu Selpak's founders, Vutha Tor is a well-respected contemporary artist in Cambodia. Having also spent his childhood at the Site Two camp, he attended drawing classes there as a form of art therapy. He went on to study visual arts, moving to Thailand to gain more experience before returning to Battambang after four years. There, he became a teacher, later spending a year in France to strengthen his artistic skills before co-founding Phare. Today, he continues to teach art at Phare, also creating his own expressive pieces, which are shown across the globe.

Kanitha Tith

This talented visual artist graduated in interior design from the Royal University of Fine Arts in 2008, and has since made a name for herself with a series of installations. In 2012, Kanitha took part in the Cambodian Youth Arts Festival, exploring the relations between tradition and the contemporary world. Her work incorporates sculptures and installations that explore the relationship between her personal experiences and the environment, with a slant on the country's rapidly changing landscape.

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11 Cambodian Contemporary Artists You Should Know

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Sothy Chhim Born in 1969 in Kandal province, Sothy Chhim is one of the country's leading artists. Having spent a decade studying at Phnom Penh's Royal University of Fine Arts - where he now teaches - he mastered traditional Khmer painting.

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5 Famous Chinese Artworks we "should know"

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5 Famous Chinese Artworks we "should know"

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1. Painted Banner, Tomb of the Marquess of Dai, Mawangdui. ca. 160 B.C.E.
In the early 1970s, archaeologists digging at an ancient grave site in modern-day Hunan province discovered one of the richest treasure-troves of modern history: the tomb of noblewoman Lady Dai, including the perfectly preserved body of the lady herself. This painted silk funeral banner, which lay on the innermost of her nested coffins, contains what is considered to be the earliest portrait in Chinese history. The map-like composition is divided into three spaces: the underworld, the world of the living, and a heaven-like world of the immortals. At center, Lady Dai stands surrounded by family members and attendants, while below relatives give Lady Dai her funeral feast and offer sacrifices to help her soul find the realm of the immortals. This underworld of the tomb, symbolized by giant serpents, is where her body soul (corporeal soul) dwells while her spirit soul ascends to the realm of the immortals above. The insight the banner provides into how the afterlife was structured in early Chinese beliefs makes it as valuable to history as it is beautiful.

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Five Famous Chinese Artworks You Should Know

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1. Painted Banner, Tomb of the Marquess of Dai, Mawangdui. ca. 160 B.C.E. In the early 1970s, archaeologists digging at an ancient grave site in modern-day Hunan province discovered one of the richest treasure-troves of modern history: the tomb of noblewoman Lady Dai, including the perfectly preserved body of the lady herself.

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Explore art by artists who are from, or who have lived in, Southeast Asia. Browse works by size, price, and medium.

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Awesome Contemporary Chinese Art - Zhong Biao: China (10 photos)

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Aside from the obvious beauty displayed in Zhong Biao's paintings, there's something else that really draws me in. His pieces have such depth and leave me

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In collaboration with Sa Sa Bassac, a gallery and resource center based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, MCASB presents a solo exhibition by Khvay Samnang (b. 1982, Svay Rieng, CM). The artist, whose work encompasses photography, video, sculpture, and installation, is interested in revealing how the complexities of Cambodia's postwar national transformations-from urban development to agricultural practices-are registered and experienced. Khvay's extensive research-based projects involve alternative interpretations of historical events and political subject-matter, in which contentious public issues are addressed through poetic and performative interventions. Khvay often uses his own body-incorporating symbolic gestures and ritual-to personalize the impact of colonial infrastructures on Cambodia's communities and land, and what this means for future generations.

Footprints of Yantra Man (2015) refers to the country's history of violent war-from the Cambodian soldiers who fought in and for France in World War I to those killed by United States bombings during the Vietnam War-and the Khmer Rouge regime's cultural demolition that occurred during this latter period. The installation, while commemorating those involved in these traumas, focuses on the ways in which Southeast Asian sacred traditions, here in the form of drawings and objects, are continued forms of resistance against conflict, colonial oppression, and displacement. The text, images and patterns in Khvay's work are inspired by yantra-a mystical manifestation (often design) that bring about protective powers. Khvay depicts personally resonant yantra in the engraved metal armor sized to the artist's own body; the metal plate bindings of a long cotton string depicting a Hindu amulet; and the ink drawings on a wall-sized red cloth. Further, extending his focus on the yantra to Cambodian diaspora, the photographs in the installation are based on the artist's interviews with Long Beach residents (the second largest Cambodian community outside of Southeast Asia) about their relationship to spiritually significant objects. Their stories are written on the backs of the photographs. As Khvay's work traces the generational transmission of traditional Cambodian belief systems, the artist is also interested in how Footprints of Yantra Man asks us to consider the significance in broader migrations of sacred cultural symbols and rituals as they are altered, remade, and reinterpreted across geographies and time scales.

Khvay Samnang is a founding member of arts collective Stiev Selapak (Art Rebels), which formed in 2007 as a space for artists to share resources and exchange critical dialogue on contemporary art. The collective generated increased visibility on the various ways artists were making work that often dealt with the traumatic residue of the Khmer Rouge regime and the country's subsequent rebuilding. Stiev Selapak's work, including their founding in 2010 of the art space Sa Sa Bassac, together with curator Erin Gleeson, is seminal to the development of Cambodian contemporary art history.

Khvay's solo exhibitions include The Pacific Project: Khvay Samnang, Orange County Museum of Art (2016); Rubber Man, Jeu de Paume, Paris and CAPC, Bordeaux (2015); Human Nature, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Singapore (2014); and Newspaper Man, SA SA BASSAC, Phnom Penh (2012). His group exhibitions include 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland, AU (2015); The Khmer Rouge and the consequences. Documentation as artistic memory work, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin (2015), A Time For Dreams, IV Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (2014), If The World Changed, 4th Singapore Biennale (2014), Everyday Life: 4th Asian Art Biennale, Taipei Fine Art Museum (2013), Sights and Sounds: Global Video Art, The Jewish Museum, NYC (2013), Phnom Penh: Rescue Archaeology, ifa, Berlin and Stuttgart (2013), and Poetic Politic, Kadist Foundation, San Francisco (2012). Khvay was a resident Bethanien Künstlerhaus, Berlin (2014-2015). In 2015 was nominated for the AIMIA AGO Photography Prize Long List, Canada; the Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Hong Kong; and Prudential Eye Awards Best Emerging Artist in Asia Using Photography, Singapore.

Exhibition co-organized by Erin Gleeson, artistic director of Sa Sa Bassac and independent curator; and Brooke Kellaway, associate curator at MCASB.

Public programs scheduled in early November 2016 (please check back soon for more details). Khvay and Sa Sa Bassac's artistic director, Erin Gleeson, will visit Santa Barbara for a series of discussions and workshops focused both on the artist's project at MCASB and the role of Sa Sa Bassac in the cultural community of Phnom Penh and abroad.
This exhibition marks the beginning of a two-year exchange series that takes place in MCASB's Bloom Project exhibition gallery, a space that for over a decade continues to feature new commissions and experimental projects by regional, national, and international emerging or under-recognized artists. The series presents solo exhibitions focused on programmatic collaborations with small-to mid-sized "off-centered" art organizations in cities across the globe. While bringing increased visibility to vibrant yet less broadly known artistic contexts, the exhibitions generate dialogue on innovative and localized approaches to display, communication, publishing, and audience development. A focal part of the series is public programming that involves critical discussion amongst Santa Barbara artists and arts professionals on articulating the necessity of new or expanded arts initiatives; and considering various factors that influence how these initiatives emerge and endure, notably in regions outside of major artistic centers, as is our town.
[ Press Release]

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Bloom Projects Exchange Series: Khvay Samnang, Footprints of Yantra Man

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In collaboration with Sa Sa Bassac, a gallery and resource center based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, MCASB presents a solo exhibition by Khvay Samnang (b. 1982, Svay Rieng, CM). The artist, whose work encompasses photography, video, sculpture, and installation, is interested in revealing how the complexities of Cambodia's postwar national transformations-from urban development to agricultural practices-are registered and experienced.

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An article written based on street art in Phnom Penh. The pieces of modern artwork represents the cultural side of Cambodia as well as it's people. One of the artwork, "On fire", represents the style of kbach in which is a feature of Cambodian art.

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After a world-class street artist left his mark on a drab wall in Phnom Penh, the government stamped its authority by painting over the mural within days. The decision has sparked a debate over the merits of street art and its place in Cambodia From our February 2016 issue - download the complete issue via our app here
Photography by Sam Jam

In early December, something unusual occurred in downtown Phnom Penh. In a city not renowned for its enlightened approach to public art, one of the world's foremost street artists was wielding ice-cooled spray cans. Not only that, he was painting a mural of a hitherto unknown seamstress named Moeun Thary.

From a perch high up on a cherry picker, Miles ' El Mac ' MacGregor created a spearmint green, grey and white image depicting this middle-aged woman holding aloft a needle and thread, her eyes looking proudly into the distance. It was completed by December 16, but just a few days later it was gone, hastily whitewashed over on the order of city authorities.

"I hope this mural can serve as a respectful tribute to the importance and perseverance of Cambodia's creative legacy, and possibly, in some small way, offer inspiration for younger Cambodian artists to sustain this legacy," El Mac wrote on his blog after completing the image.

Since its erasure, the image has become infamous, spawning a legacy that may reach much further than the artist's original intention. In the aftermath, it has been widely shared on social media, becoming something of a focal point in the interface between the authorities and ordinary people.

The mural itself was bankrolled by David Choe, an American multimedia artist who famously accepted stocks in return for painting murals at Facebook's offices. Those stocks are now worth an estimated $200m and allow him to fund his Igloo Hong project, which takes artists around the world with the freedom to create their best work. Renowned street artists Aryz, Esao Andrews and James Jean joined El Mac in attempting to beautify Cambodia's capital, along with Choe himself.

The reasons behind the municipality's decision to paint over the mural remain obscure, although its spokesman Long Dimanche told the Phnom Penh Post that it was because permission had not been granted, though he said an application had been received. A fixer working with the artists told the paper that they paid $2,000 in fees and believed they had a verbal go-ahead, if not the paperwork.

"City Hall strongly discourages any street art which is unauthorised and depicts something inappropriate," Long Dimanche, who would not answer specific questions about the mural, told Southeast Asia Globe.

Having organised last year's Cambodia Urban Art Festival, as well as other events that display artwork in public spaces, Kor Borin has experience working with city authorities. The head of cultural services at the Institut Français said that the process of obtaining a permit involves submitting detailed plans to the municipality and consultation between all stakeholders. Potential designs must chime with Cambodian cultural sensibilities, Kor Borin explains, so therefore "no nudity or images of death".

Just a stone's throw from the site of the mural, a small market hums with everyday life. Stallholders announce their wares, a female vendor hacks the head off a live fish and parked motorbikes sprawl into the street. In the adjacent alleyways, the aforementioned artists got to work, and the results draw mixed reactions from locals.

"I don't understand what it means," says 30-year-old Noeun Monika. She is referring to the colourful, cartoon-like heads that Choe himself painted on the outside wall of her money transfer shop. Opposite these are even more abstract designs.

Just down the street there is a more figurative mural of a boatwoman by James Jean. This meets with Noeun's approval. Tuk tuk driver Haem Bophann, who is parked in front of the artwork, also likes it and wants to see more such pieces - if they are "attractive and colourful".

Down a nearby alley that leads to an upmarket apartment block, one wall is now taken up with the elongated figure of a cartoon man and the figure of a bull. Neither of these are popular with an elderly man sitting in a deckchair opposite. "I don't like any of them," he says, shaking his head and refusing to be drawn further.

Koy Leangeang, who runs a nearby grocery shop, says she likes the painting on the wall of her business, a silvery image of a sailing ship by Esao Andrews. "They came to ask permission first and showed me the design, so I said yes," she explains.

But across the Tonle Sap river, under a concrete bridge that is home to swifts and a few cows, another tuk tuk driver, Ry Houl, is not so sure about a further set of cartoon-like faces by David Chao. "I don't understand them," he says. Although he adds later that he would like to see more murals in the city, as long as they "make sense".

A 15-minute drive west, the Boeung Kak area was once a thriving magnet for backpackers. It is now a district in limbo, with much of the area earmarked for a large development. Some residents were evicted, others received settlement packages while many simply upped and left. But a few cling on, some of them holding out for a better deal from the authorities.

The shells of former guesthouses loom over the street, their windowframes and doorframes knocked out. Life goes on. An emaciated man prepares to smoke some methamphetamine, while across the road a teenaged girl hangs out washing. But all around, walls are covered in colourful art - a spiky red serpent here; a stencil of a woman crying turquoise tears there.

The art is partly due to the French owners of Simone Bistro, situated here, who have encouraged artists to paint the walls in an effort to revive the area. One resident, 69-year-old Say Sophorn - whose house stands alone in a patch of razed buildings as she waits for a settlement - likes the images that have sprung up in the devastation around her. "It's good," she says. "They bring some life and colour to the area."

Two Cambodian artists who have painted here are Koy, 18, and Strange, 20. Strange grew up in Los Angeles and was exposed to its street art from an early age before moving to Cambodia when he was 11. He says he realises it is hard for local people to accept the edgier forms of street art and has adapted his style accordingly by stylising the Khmer script in a modern but accessible way. Koy, who first became aware of street art via social media and by seeing work in the Boeung Kak area, likes the "freedom" to express himself outside the confines of traditional Khmer arts, but given the chance to fill the vacant space where the mural was, he would paint something related to "Cambodian culture, the people of Phnom Penh".

For Nico Mesterharm, the founder of German-Cambodian cultural centre Meta House, part of the problem is that "the people who make these decisions just don't understand art". Mesterharm adds that authorities and building owners need "to see that [art] does not damage their facades - it's an add-on". He also points to the potential for tourism and for attracting other creative people to Phnom Penh and putting it on the cultural map.

Added to this lack of appreciation of art, there is the government's fear of free expression, especially in the form of street art. "They don't understand it, they don't know why people do it, they don't see the point in it," says Victor Blanco, a lecturer and illustrator living, working and painting in the city. "I think they're worried about the idea that it might be political."

Blanco also points out that, conversely, many of the Cambodians painting walls here are from relatively wealthy and well-connected families - and some can even afford to employ assistants. People from a poor background lack such advantages, particularly the wherewithal to extricate themselves from trouble if they are caught painting without a permit.

Therefore, however inspiring the efforts of Choe and his cohorts, along with those of numerous expatriate street artists, it is unlikely a truly grassroots street art movement will occur for some time.

French artist Chifumi, a co-organiser of the Cambodia Urban Art Festival, is not discouraged. In the wake of the mural incident he is simply pleased to see Cambodians talking about street art in such numbers.

"When we started the festival, nobody really knew about street art," he said. "You have to do things step by step, following the cultural background."

***

The k'bach style has long been a major feature of Cambodian art

Any visitor to Cambodia will sooner or later notice that buildings, artworks and traditional clothing feature similar decorative motifs. This style is known as k'bach and is characterised by repeated shapes and flourishes within a basic outline. This produces the rich ornamentation that can be seen from carvings on the world-famous Angkor temples to the moulded ceiling decorations and carved wooden furniture so common in modern-day Cambodia.

In the Khmer language, the word can refer to any traditional art form, including the movements of classical dancers and those practicing the ancient martial art of Kun Khmer. Some street artists working in the Kingdom have found that incorporating or adapting elements of k'bach can help their art gain the acceptance of the Cambodian public and, in particular, the authorities who grant approval for artists' work to go up in
public spaces.

For more of Théo Vallier's work click here

Keep reading:
" Portrait of a lady: Moeun Thary " - An interview with Moeun Thary, subject of a mural by famed street artist El Mac that was erased by Phnom Penh authorities

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After a world-class street artist left his mark on a drab wall in Phnom Penh, the government stamped its authority by painting over the mural within days. The decision has sparked a debate over the merits of street art and its place in Cambodia From our February 2016 issue - download the complete issue via our app here Photography by Sam Jam In early December, something unusual occurred in downtown Phnom Penh.

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LibGuides: Chinese contemporary art: Yao Lu

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LibGuides: Chinese contemporary art: Yao Lu

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LibGuides: Korean Contemporary Art: Korean contemporary art home

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LibGuides: Korean Contemporary Art: Korean contemporary art home

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This Tate Liverpool's exhibition aims to convey the sheer diversity, confidence and ambition of art being made in China today. These predominantly young artists have chosen to remain in China, unlike many of the generation before them, and the majority of the work on show is seen for the first time outside the country.

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Karen Smith:This is a show of work from eighteen artists from China who were selected partly because they are one of the most interesting group of people at work in China today. Simon Groom who is head of exhibitions here has been thinking about doing this for many years. This is not new. When we started work on The Real Thing I think the main point was not to have any curatorial theme. We wanted to find artists who perhaps had a work that they had been thinking about for a long time but because of circumstances they hadn't been able to do it. And we wanted to have an opportunity, no matter how challenging, to let them do that piece of work.Simon Groom:We have tried to include a wide range of media in the show to really reflect what is happening now that we think is of artistic interest rather than mercantile interest. This show really distinguishes itself I think from any other show of contemporary Chinese art in the number of really spectacular commissions that we have been able to achieve.Karen Smith:One of the works I think that offers a very interesting comment on China now is Yang Fudong's new work that was especially commissioned by Tate for the show which is called East of Que Village, what it is, is a film that's really about the existence as experienced by a lot of people who live outside of those sort of up and coming and rapidly developing urban centres and he makes this stark comparison between the dogs that scavenge for a living there and the people, meaning that the living conditions between the two are actually very little different and I think its an incredibly poignant piece that looks at sort of you know just the humanity and the human issues for China today.You come into the building here and you see a sign that says 'only 118 steps to the top of Everest'. This is a piece produced by Shanghai based artist Xu Zhen which comprises all the equipment and documentation of a trip to Everest he made last year including the top of the mountain which is presented in a marvellous glass case. This is a marvellous work in illustrating the humour which the Chinese artists are capable. It's also something that really challenges perceptions about what you're really looking at when you walk into the space and see this monumental container with a mountain top in it.Simon Groom:This show isn't limited to just the things in the gallery but also includes commissions for outside and of course we went for the most ambitious which is a floating chandelier with eight hundred bulbs in it made of real crystal that was put together in China and it finally floated for the opening of the exhibition. We have also commissioned a firework spectacular by this young group based in the south of China. It is not just a spectacle it really is announcing that actually there is a new generation of Chinese artists that have arrived and really it's a signal to the older generation: watch out the young Chinese are on their way

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This Tate Liverpool's exhibition aims to convey the sheer diversity, confidence and ambition of art being made in China today. These predominantly young artists have chosen to remain in China, unlike many of the generation before them, and the majority of the work on show is seen for the first time outside the country.

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Filipino Artist. Great example of dystopian life

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Leslie de Chavez | Detritus (2012-2013) | Artsy

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From Singapore Art Museum (SAM), Leslie de Chavez, Detritus (2012-2013), Oil on canvas, 240 × 570 cm

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Khvay Samnang | Untitled (2011-2013) | Artsy

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From Singapore Art Museum (SAM), Khvay Samnang, Untitled (2011-2013), 5-channel video, sound

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Cambodian Artist Svay Sareth

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Svay Sareth | Toy (Churning of the Sea of Milk) (2013) | Artsy

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From Singapore Art Museum (SAM), Svay Sareth, Toy (Churning of the Sea of Milk) (2013), Cotton, wood, iron, 1500 × 500 × 100 cm

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Lee Wen

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Lee Wen | Art vs. Art No.1 (2003-2012) | Available for Sale | Artsy

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Available for sale from Ipreciation, Lee Wen, Art vs. Art No.1 (2003-2012), Modified vacuum cleaner, papier maché, 46 × 32 × 26 cm

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Amazing sculpture by a Cambodian born artist

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Sopheap Pich | Morning Glory (2011) | Artsy

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From Guggenheim Museum, Sopheap Pich, Morning Glory (2011), Rattan, bamboo, wire, plywood, and steel, 533.4 × 261.6 × 188 cm

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Vietnamese Artist, but a Cambodian focus in this work

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Dinh Q. Lê | The Headless Buddhas of Angkor (2012) | Available for Sale | Artsy

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Available for sale from Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Dinh Q. Lê, The Headless Buddhas of Angkor (2012), 15 Digital prints, 129 3/8 × 153 3/4 in

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Dinh Q. Lê | The Trees and The Fish (2017) | Available for Sale | Artsy

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Available for sale from 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Dinh Q. Lê, The Trees and The Fish (2017), Epson Inkjet Print, linen Tape, 180 × 108 cm