CAMBODIA

Nget Chanpenh

``I never managed to put words on what I live, what I see, what I think. So, I decided to express all this through painting``

Visual Artist

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

“I consider it a duty to leave a testimony of what happened to me and my country. My art is a form of psychotherapy where I act both as therapist and patient. I position myself not so much as a victim but as an external witness of the evils of the society that surrounds me. I do not seek to please, nor even to explain. I just try to paint a questioning statement, with as a main weapon, the power of poetry.”
Nget was born in Bantey Meanchey in 1993. He is married and has two children. Nget graduated from Phare Ponleu Selpak visual art school in 2013 and lives and works at Romcheik 5 studios in Battambang, Cambodia.
About Romcheik 5 collective:
Romcheik 5 is the name of the neighbourhood of Battambang where, in 2012, 3 young cambodian artists have established their joint workshop and studios with the help of a donor.
- HOUR Seyha (born 1991)
- NGET Chanpenh (born 1993)
- MIL Chankrim (born 1991)
They all graduated from Phare Ponleu Selpak visual art school in 2013. But above all, they share the same rough personal background and history; one made of wounds, abandonment, irresponsible parents, exile, hard labour, distress and loneliness. After being expelled from Thailand where they were forced to work during their childhood, they were collected and sheltered by a NGO that has led them on the path of learning the visual arts. Despite their young age, and even before they graduated, they already participated in solo and duo exhibitions in Phnom Penh, and group exhibitions in France, Canada and of course Cambodia. Many of their works have been sold in several countries in Europe (Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, England & Scandinavia), Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan), Australia and USA.
Testimony:
``Through a friend, who is working to support young, local artists, I found three incredible young men in Battambang, who, without the academic references to the world of art and its history, paint these amazing images, mostly about themselves, their journey, their struggles, some in vivid colors, some in alien forms. The emotional and the human qualities of their work touch the very core of one's heart, and through this one man's effort to support them, they deserve to be known as the freshest, freest pieces of contemporary art, without the pretentiousness of a scholarly reasoning behind why and what art should be. They are freely expressing themselves, using whatever art median at hand to shine the dark corners of their lives, while on the path to self-discovery, connecting their own suffering with those who are humanly enough to feel the power in their process of healing and understanding their orphaned world, full of poverty, neglect, violence, exploitation and abandonment. If this is not art, I don't know what is.`` (CHAT Piersath / Cambodian-american writer)
Solo exhibitions:
- 2021 Whose fault is it ? / Meta House / Phnom Penh
- 2019 Horizons / Romcheik5 Artspace / Battambang
- 2018 Tattooed Children / Java Café gallery / Phnom Penh
- 2017 Waiting for the Ice-melt / Meta House / Phnom Penh
- 2015 Solitudes / Meta House / Phnom Penh

Duo exhibitions:
- 2022 Ten years after / Pi-Pet-Pi gallery / Phnom Penh
- 2014 Darkness of the countryside / Lotus Gallery / Battambang
- 2012 During the dark / Romeet Gallery / Phnom Penh

Group exhibitions:
- 2020 Made in Cambodia / ArtXchange gallery / Seattle / USA
- 2020 Traum’art / Galerie Lee / Paris / France
- 2019 Unsaid Things / Mirage Contemporary Artspace / Siem Reap
- 2016 Out of the Darkness / Constable gallery / Siem Reap
- 2014 Made in Cambodia / Galerie 3F / Paris / France
- 2014 Made in Battambang / French Institute / Phnom Penh

Part of the World Bank Art Collection / Washington DC / USA
(Acquisition of “The Zebra who pretended to be a Tiger” / 100 x 90 cm / Oil & Enamel on canvas / 2018)

Artworks

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