Khvay Samnang was born in 1982 in Svay Rieng, Cambodia. He 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. In his work, which includes all media, he 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. Traveling is a crucial tool for his practice. Engaging directly and personally with local communities – within and beyond the cultural scene – is an integral part of his work, which makes it highly relevant, critical and connectable to various contemporary discourses. His work shows a remarkable ability to engage with cultural and geographic contexts as well as with spatial and institutional settings.

Khvay Samnang is among the most promising up-and-coming international artists. His outstanding artistic significance is proven by his prestigious exhibition and grant portfolio. His solo exhibitions include Dancing the Land, ifa Gallery Stuttgart, Germany (2022); Calling for Rain, Tramway, Glasgow, Slotland (2021); A Forest of Spirit, Nova Contemporary Art Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand; Khvay Samnang “Preah Kunlong” & “Where is my land?”, Batia Sarem Gallery, Siem Reap, Cambodia; Capsule 10: Khvay Samnang, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2019); Where is my land?, Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh (2017); Bloom Projects Exchange Series, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, USA (2016); The Pacific Project: Khvay Samnang, Orange County Museum of Art, CA, USA; Footprints of Yantra Man, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany, Enjoy My Sand, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; Rubber Man, Jeu de Paume, Paris, CAPC Bordeaux, France (2015); Human Nature, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Singapore (2014); and Newspaper Man, SA SA BASSAC, Phnom Penh (2012). His group exhibitions include The Statistics of Fortune, Macao International Art Biennale 2023, Macao Museum of Art, Macao, China, 2023; Festival Indonesia Bertutur 2022; documenta 15, Hubner, Kassel, Germany, 2022;  Helsinki Biennial 2021, Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland; Children’s Biennale 2021, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore; Listening to Voices, Futura, Prague, The Czech Republic (2021); Escape Routes, Bangkok Art Biennale, Bangkok, Thailand; In The Forest, Even The Air Breathes, GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy; Green Currents, Foundaton Groupe EDF, Paris, France; Animalia, Garage Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2020); Frieze (Live Performance), London, United Kingdom; An Opera for Animals, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China, In One Drop of Water, Art Gallery of New South Wave, Sydney, Australia; Borderlines, Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh, UK; Documenting Change: Our Climate (Past, Present, Future, CU Art Museum, The University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado, USA (2019); Post Nature (Taipei Biennial 2018), Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan; Constructing Mythologies, Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong; Animals & Us, Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK; Biennale of Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2018); Fleeting Territories, Kunstraum Niederosterreich, Vienna, Austria; DOCUMENTA 14, Athens, Greece / Kassel, Germany; People, Money, Ghosts, Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok (2017); Future Nature, Jack Hanley Gallery, NYC, USA; Phnom Penh, Rescures Archaeology, The Body and the Lens in the City, Fragments Empire: Cambodian Art from the Angkor Period, John Young Museum of Art, University of Hawaii, Manoa and Shifting Geographies, Bophanna Audiovisual Resource Center, Phnom Penh (2016), Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT), Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia; Globale: Global Control and Censorship, ZKM | Center of Art an Media, Karlsruhe, Germany (2015); A Time For Dreams, IV Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (2014), If The World Changed, 4th Singapore Biennale (2014), Sights and Sounds: Global Video Art, The Jewish Museum, New York, USA (2013), Phnom Penh: Rescue Archaeology, ifa, Berlin and Stuttgart, Germany, and Poetic Politic, Kadist Foundation, San Francisco, USA (2012).

Khvay Samnang is a founding member of Stiev Selapak, an art collective dedicated to reappraising and remembering Cambodian history and exploring continuities in visual practices disrupted by civil war and the Khmer Rouge regime. Stiev Selapak set up two nonprofit art spaces in Phnom Penh: Sa Sa Art Projects (2010-2024), for experimental residencies, knowledge-sharing, and community-based programs; and SA SA BASSAC (2011-2018), a gallery, resource center, and reading room. He teaches Contemporary Art Class to emerging Cambodian artists under the program of Sa Sa Art Projects (2010-2020). Khvay received Artist Award Money from Japan Art and Culture Foundation (2024). He was nominated for the Future Generation Art Prize, Ukraine (2016), he was nominated for Prix Pictet Prize; AIGA 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 (2015). He was a grant holder of KfW Stiftung for the 12-month programme ‘Artists in Residence’ in collaboration with Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2014-2015); he was invited by KfW Stiftung as an alumnus to participate in a think tank with the world-renowned dancer and choreographer Akram Khan (2017); and he was artist in residency at Delfina Foundation, London, UK (2019).

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NOMINATION + AWARD

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EDUCATION

• 2006     B.A. Painting, Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA), Phnom Penh, Cambodia