Come to the Phnom Penh opening on Thursday 1 October

It's official, we're opening on Thursday 1 October from 6 pm to 8 pm at Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center in Phnom Penh. It's free and open to the public, so tell all of your friends.

If you can't make it to the opening, the exhibit will be open from 1 October to 10 October from 8 am to 6 pm (closed Sundays).

Bophana is on Street 200 between Monivong and Street 63. You can see a map here.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Chhea Bunna, Artist

Chhea Bunna was born in 1983 in Phnom Penh. He studied Modern Sculpture at the Royal University of Fine Arts and graduated in 2006. In 2007 he completed a teaching degree in Plastic Arts and History of Art from the National Institute of Education. Bunna currently teaches drawing at the Hun Sen Takmao high school.

From 2003-2005 Bunna was a participant in the Peace Art Project Cambodia, a project turning decommissioned small arms (predominantly AK-47s) into sculptures as expressions of peace. He is currently part of the ‘Krousar Selapak’ art workshop in Phnom Penh and has shown work in two group exhibitions in 2009, ‘Intercity’ at Meta House in Phnom Penh and ‘Present Tense’ at Hotel de la Paix in Siem Reap. His art work is in numerous private collections around the globe.

Ouk Chim Vichet, Artist

Ouk Chim Vichet completed his Degree in Sculpture in 2006 from the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) and is now teaching in the department of Sculpture and Urbanization at RUFA. When he was still a student, he joined a group working on the Peace Art Project Cambodia. The group learned how to weld, forge and fabricate metal sculptures and then used their skills to create art work out of decommissioned weapons. It was the first time it had been done in Cambodia and was a very successful project.

He and his team members learned a lot about different art work and are very proud of the sculptures and monuments which have helped contribute to Cambodian society. These art works include the Dove of Peace in Sanderson Park near Wat Phnom, the World of Peace in Kompong Thom, and the Naga for Peace and Development in the park along the Steung Sen River in Battambang province. At the moment they are working on a new project learning about contemporary stone carving.

Ou Vanndy, Artist

Born in 1977 in Kandal province, Ou Vanndy always showed signs of being a gifted artist. He studied Modern Sculpture at the Royal University of Fine Arts and graduated in 2005. He went on to pursue a higher degree in vocational training at the National Institute of Education, where he is now a professor.

Vanndy was one of the 23 students who participated in the Peace Art Project Cambodia from 2003 to 2005. This was the first opportunity he had had to learn how to work with metal, welding and forging twisted AK-47s into beautiful sculptures as expressions of peace. It was a testament from the youth of Cambodia. In 2007, he was part of another project working with small arms. It was Vanndy’s design of a Naga that was chosen by the Governor of Battambang to be created and placed in Battambang town. He worked with three other artists over seven months to make this powerful, six-meter high monument made out of approximately 2000 small arms. He is currently learning about contemporary stone carving with the Krousar Selapak art group, of which he is a member.

Em Riem, Artist

Em Riem was born in 1977 in a village in Cambodia. He obtained his National Diploma at the Royal School of Fine Arts before moving to France for seven years, where he studied first in the School of Fine Arts in Saint Etienne and then at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, better known as “Arts Decos”. He won the Certificate of Specialized Studies (Post-Diploma) in design.

Riem returned to Cambodia in 2007 and opened the X-EM design gallery in Phnom Penh, which exhibits Riem’s own works and also those of young Khmer and foreign designers and contemporary artists. His work as a designer and painter has quickly become respected, and he has participated in international art events in France, the United States and Italy. His art works are now in collections around the world.

Deeply attached to the Khmer culture, Riem respects its formal artistic qualities but is also open to other worldly influences; he is essentially eclectic, without prejudice or conformity. His creative freedom is open to the field of abstraction, expressionism and even the lyrical, as in his most accurate figurative representations. His paintings and sculptures are usually large-format and often incorporate unusual materials. Riem demonstrates a sound mastery and audacity even when based on the topic of Cambodia’s tragedy during the time of the Khmer Rouge period.

Chhon Dina, Artist

Chhon Dina was born in 1984 in Phnom Penh, but at the age of ten her family moved to Poipet to join her father, who was a policeman there. It was a rather dull place with little to do. She did not attend school and had very few friends. Poipet was heavily contaminated with landmines. She clearly remembers being very frightened by seeing a woman go to a place which people said was dangerous and hearing an explosion a short while later.

She eventually returned to Phnom Penh, where she first saw drawings made by a cousin and was very impressed. She and some friends began to make small sculptures from clay they took from the boeung (swampy lake), and a man teaching children at a local orphanage provided her with her first opportunity to use colors. He became her art teacher for several years.

In 2004, she had her first group exhibition in Phnom Penh, and she has also exhibited in Siem Reap and Paris. She has several years’ experience teaching art to children in orphanages, and has painted murals in most of them. She loves the arts, especially sculpture, and enjoys playing guitar in her free time.