Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

'The 'First' Cambodian Contemporary Artist'

Corey, Pamela

'The 'First' Cambodian Contemporary Artist' Thumbnail


Authors

Pamela Corey



Abstract

Given the recent attention to Cambodian contemporary art as one of the latest phenomena to expand the perimeters of the global art world, this essay considers the historicization of “the first Cambodian contemporary artist.” By analyzing the artworks produced by and the discourses surrounding Leang Seckon (b. 1974), Pich Sopheap (b. 1971), Svay Ken (1933-2008), and Vann Nath (1946-2011), this article suggests that these four particular artists were integral to a shift in the critical regime of representation of “Cambodian contemporary art” from roughly 2003 to 2010. I focus on this group as representative of a certain moment of transition, when these artists gained a level of international exposure through various platforms of reception, including art exhibitions, film, art writing, autobiographical publication, and scholarly work. Tracing the diverse criteria through which each of them came to represent “the first Cambodian contemporary artist” reveals the extent to which these artists were at the core of expanding discourses on aesthetics, biography, community, history, and oscillating attributions of being modern/contemporary.

Citation

Corey, P. (2015). 'The 'First' Cambodian Contemporary Artist'. Udaya, 12, 61-94

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 1, 2014
Online Publication Date Jan 1, 2015
Publication Date Jan 1, 2015
Deposit Date Apr 12, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 13, 2025
Journal Udaya, Journal of Khmer Studies
Print ISSN 1683-7274
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 12
Pages 61-94
Publisher URL http://www.yosothor.org/udaya/index.php/ujks/article/view/185

Files






Downloadable Citations