b. 1982, Phnom Penh

Khvay Samnang (b. 1982 in Svay Rieng, Cambodia) graduated from the Painting Department at the Royal University of Fine Art in Phnom Penh, where he lives and works today. Khvay’s multidisciplinary practice offers new views on historic and current events as well as on traditional cultural rituals using humorous symbolic gestures. Using all media in his work, Khvay focuses on the humanitarian and ecological impacts of colonialism and globalization. The development of each body of work is based on thorough research and investigation of local specificities, structures and conditions, where acts of traveling and engaging directly and personally with local communities – within and beyond the cultural scene – become an integral part. Among the most promising up-and-coming international artists, Khvay’s outstanding artistic significance is proven by his prestigious exhibition and grant portfolio. Khvay’s solo exhibitions include Where is my land? (Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh, Cambodia); Footprints of Yantra Man (Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, CA) and Rubber Man (Jeu de Paume, Paris); group exhibitions include documenta 14 (EMST, Athens, Greece and Ottoneum, Kassel, Germany); People, Money, Ghosts (Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok) and Asia Pacific Triennial 9 (QAG & GOMA, Brisbane).