1971. Its a balance, or a contradiction, that repeats throughout Pichs work: creation and destruction, freedom and confinement, fragility and strength, inside and out.

The piece re-creates a huge phonograph-like bloom trailing menacing, serpent-like buds. View upcoming auction estimates and receive personalized email alerts for the artists you follow.

, Sopheap Pich, Reliefs at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, installation view (image via trfineart.com). San Francisco | California | USA

The stalk is budding, but progress is tough. It really drove me to make that kind of work. - Jan 02,2023, MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art Pich uses beeswax mixed with tree resin and dirt to create a rich, textured dark brown scorched earth that covers the whole piece, broken here and there by flashes of bright raffia threads in red and blue. More by Natasja Sheriff. Its about life in contemplation. He returned to Cambodia in 2002.

..Pich works principally in rattan and bamboo, constructing organic open-weave forms that are solid and ethereal, representational and abstract.. Jul 16,2022 Two pieces in the series are currently on display at the Met; another 10 are on view at Tyler Rollins Fine Art until June 14. His diaphanous Buddha couldnt be more different from those among which it hangs, weightless: 10th- and 12th-century Cambodian and Vietnamese statues of the Buddha and other deities cast in bronze and stone. Outro: World-Building Within and Outside the Studio at the SVA Chelsea Gallery features new work by 26 recent graduates, on view through August 15. It hangs in a space on the second floor of the Asian galleries, a huge, globular, curvaceous form suspended in the center of the room. A figure of the Buddha hangs at the center of a small gallery filled with natural light. But medicine wasnt his calling, and he made the switch to art at the end of his second year, majoring in painting instead. Sopheap Pich, Buddha 2 (2009), rattan, wire, dye, 100 x 29 x 9 in / 254 x 73.7 x 22.9 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic unless otherwise noted). Yeah, obviously if youre saying something about deforestation and stuff, its political, but thats just what happens, so Im not in control of it.. Given Pichs history, theres a certain inevitability that commentary on his work will focus on the legacy of the Khmer Rouge, and Pichs childhood experiences have undoubtedly informed his work. For his recent works, he gathered beeswax and dirt during his travels around the country the soil in parts of Cambodia is particularly rich in iron, giving it a distinct pigment. [Religion] influences me in a way that I take a little bit of what my father tells me, I take a little bit of what my grandmother tells me, and they are full-on Buddhists, he said. This ethereal sculpture, Buddha 2 (2009), is the latest acquisition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and part of a striking solo exhibition by artist Sopheap Pich. Buddha 2 can also be viewed as a metaphor for modern Cambodia as an unraveling, or a process of creation and renewal. Cambodia is emerging, rapidly and exuberantly, from under the weight of its own recent history, but the countrys destructive politics and entrenched corruption threaten to undermine its development. Pichs 2012 Relief series is a departure from the curvaceous forms that typify his previous work to a more rigid grid structure. I dont equate them to religion. Total Sold Value $2,060,335 . While the large blooming flower commands the viewers attention, another one rests delicately on the floor, each fold of the petals carefully constructed. Focus and labor thats what keeps me going, so if that falls into the Buddhist whatever philosophy, then it is., Sopheap Pich, Cycle 2, Version 3 (2008), rattan and wire, 80 x 53 x 12 in. Over 4 meters in length, Cycle is one of Pichs many pieces that have intestines and internal organs as their primary influence. Since 2017 the record price for this artist at auction is 51,125 USD for Memory, sold at Phillips Hong Kong in 2018. - Oct 30,2022, American Either way it provides a perfect counterweight, both physically and metaphorically, to the exploding joy of the larger flower. Land is an increasingly precious commodity in Cambodia, especially in the capital city, Phnom Penh. His monumental work Morning Glory (2011) recently acquired by the Guggenheim Museum draws its inspiration from a ubiquitous water plant eaten throughout Cambodia, which saved countless lives at a time when millions were dying of starvation. ..Constructed from strips of bamboo and rattan, Pichs primary media, they also make use of a diverse array of natural materials, including goat hide, stone, and antler, as well as naturally curved bamboo stalks.. Colescotts use of stereotypes and humor continues to make viewers feel uncomfortable because it jabs indelicately at our complicity. I took a trip to Ratanakiri and came back, and then I worked on those paintings, Pich said. Aug 07, 2022, Showplace Antique Center But his experiences in exile and subsequent return to Cambodia are equally strong, if not more so. So what if everything is nothing? Total Sold Value $2,701,823 $144,200 - 230,800 Its about life with work. That meaning in creation is apparent in the cryptically named Cycle (2011). A new book introduces two Manoucher Yektais: the stateless, anti-historical Modernist painter and the poet writing narrative verse exclusively in Farsi. Pich himself fell victim to the land grabs: his former studio overlooked Boeung Kak lake, but in 2008 he and around 3,000 families were forcibly evicted when the lake was drained to make way for a government-backed real-estate project. It is mine already.. I ask myself, Why do you have to come up with a story all the time? First Nations, Mtis, and Inuit leaders have asked for their cultural heritage to be returned ahead of the popes visit to Canada. Sopheap Pich is an American Postwar & Contemporary sculptor who was born in 1971. The Carabinieris art crime unit said Gentileschis masterpiece Caritas Romana was on its way to be sold in Vienna. He left Cambodia with his family in 1979, first moving to a refugee camp in Thailand and later to the US. The Khmer Rouge abolished private property so families have no legal claim to the land on which they live; private investors are literally taking the land from underneath their feet. Pich was arguably one of the first to do that, the definitive example of an artist who has achieved global recognition and whose work is not easily read as Asian or Cambodian. It may be for that reason that he eschews any deep interpretation of his work. Moving around the piece, the weave plays tricks on the eye; it seems to flicker and undulate. He went on to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received an MFA in 1999. In these pieces, he confronts the consequences of foreign investment and globalization, as well as rampant corruption both inside and outside of the country, that are devastating Cambodias natural resources. Jun 30, 2022 - Jul 14, 2022, SFMOMA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art I think the Zen Buddhist way is also about work, he continued. They are solid, grounded, timeless, with their feet firmly planted. , His most recent pieces the Reliefs especially are sparse, minimal, and devoid of narrative. Numerous key galleries and museums such as Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo have featured Sopheap Pich's work in the past.Sopheap Pich's work has been offered at auction multiple times, with realized prices ranging from 4,698 USD to 51,125 USD, depending on the size and medium of the artwork. , Theres an overwhelming sense of memory, both visual and tactile, in his work. Sopheap Pich, Morning Glory (2011), rattan, bamboo, wire, plywood, steel bolts, 210 x 103 x 74 in / 533.4 x 261.6 x 188 cm (click to enlarge). So is it political? An earlier piece on the same theme, Cycle 2 (2008), hangs in a third-floor gallery. Theres a sense of confinement and constraint. Is it a new flower ready to open or a bloom that has withered and died? The two Relief works at the Met, along with the intestinal-looking Junk Nutrients (2009), carry a very specific message about the Cambodia to which Pich returned in 2002. Alongside Morning Glory stands Stalk, Version 2 (2009), a tight, cylindrical structure that reaches up to form a fine tapered frond. Aug 07, 2022, Art in House Auction House It wasnt until he returned to Cambodia in 2002 that he began to create sculptures, making use of natural materials that are readily available there and familiar to him from his childhood. Doreen Lynette Garner renders flesh in silicone with unforgiving realism, representing the pathology of colonialism, slavery, and white supremacy. Pich was born in Battambang in Cambodia in 1971, where he lived through the Khmer Rouge era, from 1975 to 79. Jul 08, 2022 - Jul 14, 2022, Christie's Online This week we discuss tanning, butt lift surgeries, trigger warnings, Documenta 15, and more. . Est. Within the net-like tube is a domed, budding shoot, pushing up to create a new stalk. Pich said about Cycle that the pleasure was in the process and not in thinking about the meaning of what he was making. ..Pich is widely considered to be Cambodias most internationally prominent contemporary artist.. Sopheap Pich: Reliefs continues at Tyler Rollins Fine Art (529 West 20th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan) through June 14. Founded in 2009, Hyperallergic is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. At the Met, Ratanakiri Valley Drip (2012) evokes the landscape of Cambodias northeast region using a technique that weaves burlap through a bamboo frame to create peaks and troughs, recalling a series of rolling hills. Claire Wrathall was offered a tour, earth-pigment on Saunders Waterford paper, bamboo, rattan, wire, burlap, plastic, oil based spray paint, FIAC Paris 47th Edition What the Dealers Had to Say, Semesta dan Angan/Multiverses and Dreams: Selections from the Collection of Museum MACAN, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara, ONLINE: Fresh Vision: Challenging Convention. The German artists work is exceptionally relevant today, embracing topics such as gender, queer identity, and the search for a safe, welcoming haven. Asian Art Curator John Guys decision to intersperse Pichs work among the pre-16th century art that dominates the Asian wing creates a juxtaposition that highlights Pichs modern aesthetic. Jul 16,2022

Rafael Osona Auctions / 203.2 x 134.6 x 30.5 cm. What I achieve with it is a sense of freedom that Ive never had before that I dont have to do a shape, that I dont need to feel like it has to be mine. ..Around 25 feet in length and extremely complex in its construction, the work is Pichs most ambitious single-form sculpture to date..

$36,300 - 55,700 The Met exhibition, Cambodian Rattan: The Sculptures of Sopheap Pich, is a retrospective of some of his major works, created during the decade since he returned to his homeland. Most of Pichs work is not overtly religious in content, but it nonetheless embodies Buddhist principles in its creation and construction. Natasja Sheriff covers politics, religion, and media around the world, with a focus on South and Southeast Asia. Total Sold Value $9,863,678 - Jan 02,2023, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Mnchsberg ..Pich's art consciously embodies his memories of culture and place.. Each day on his way to the rice fields, Pich would pass a Buddhist temple that had become a place of execution; bloodstains covered the walls and ceilings. Ive taken things that I think are useful to me and things that are not. Writing a global art history demands that we give up historical thinking. And then you have to reference Jayavarman VII, you have to do your hunger days from the Khmer Rouge with Morning Glory, and the stomach and the heart and the lung, everything is always something. It was this experience that led to the creation of Buddha 2..

I happen to read it in a religious context, but I think its more philosophy that has influenced me than religion. Where there used to be the normal Buddha sculptures, there were just piles of broken things I couldnt see. Her work has appeared in The Nation, Reuters, WNYC, Malaysiakini, and The Revealer. Cambodian Rattan: The Sculptures of Sopheap Pich continues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan) through July 7. Im not a religion buff, I see a lot of contradiction in religion, the artist told Hyperallergic during an interview at the Met. It was a mile-long convoy of empty buses with over 4,000 vacant seats representing the number of young people killed by guns in the US. Midtown | New York | USA , In a recent piece for Hyperallergic, I described how contemporary artists from Cambodia are breaking free of the constraints of their countrys history and tradition. Pichs fascination with anatomical structures is perhaps a throwback to his pre-med days at the University of Massachusetts. . The most recent article is FIAC Paris 47th Edition What the Dealers Had to Say written for ArtLyst in October 2021. Air can move through the structure, but the piece itself resembles a trap, like the fish traps from which Pich has drawn inspiration in his work. Cambodian Rattan: The Sculptures of Sopheap Pich, Met Exhibition Brings Back the Color to Ancient Sculptures, Kent Monkman Introduces Candid Indigenous Narratives to the Metropolitan Museums Great Hall, NRA Childrens Museum Visits Ted Cruzs House to Protest Gun Violence, SVA MFA Fine Arts Opens 2022 Thesis Exhibition in New York City, Iris Eichenbergs Mid-Career Survey Makes Its West Coast Premiere at the Museum of Craft and Design, The Iranian Poet Who Became an American Action Painter, Indigenous Groups in Canada Call on the Vatican to Return Their Cultural Belongings, Images Festival: Slow Edition Considers Tenderness as Transgression in, Sketching the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard Trial, Italy Thwarts Potential Illegal Sale of $2M Artemisia Gentileschi Painting, Jordan Peeles Nope Is Funny, Intelligent, and Horrifying, Massive NYC Gallery Opening Draws Crowds and Cops in "Fuck-You" to Landlords, Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. Only the head and shoulders have been given form, the torso a tangle of rattan strands falling away, red ink-dyed tips curving upwards, recoiling from the floor. Its not about life with nothing; its not about life doing nothing. In contrast, Pichs Buddha lacks solidity, strength, no source of support but there is a sense of peace and comfort emanating from its quiet fragility. Salzburg | Austria I was afraid to look in the dark, writes Pich on wall text that accompanies the piece. The landscape does look somewhat like that. Aug 06, 2022, Sotheby's London Meticulously constructed from strips of rattan and bamboo tied with twists of wire, it too embodies the contradictions that abound in Pichs work. Jul 13, 2022, Sotheby's Milan The sense of isolation, of being alone in the natural world, is pervasive in Frank Walters art, and yet one can also sense a muted calm. Allan and Mei Warburgs Donum Estate vineyard in California is home to a collection of figurative sculpture thats as rich and complex as its acclaimed Pinot Noirs. . Hyperallergic is a forum for serious, playful, and radical thinking about art in the world today. As an official observer, advocate, survivor, and citizen, I spiraled into a vertigo worsened by the adamant conjectures of fanatics and truthers. Sopheap Pich, Junk Nutrients (2009), bamboo, rattan, wire, plastic, rubber, metal, cloth, resin, overall: 65 49 29 in / 165.1 124.5 73.7 cm (click to enlarge). The theme here, according to Pich, is growth and renewal, but the tight weave of the rattan creates a cage-like form. Est. Alyssa Alikpala, Erika DeFreitas, Rihab Essayh, Eve Tagny, and Alize Zorlutuna consider entanglements of bereavement, spirit, and love in this Toronto exhibition. Illegal logging has destroyed broad swathes of Ratanakiris unique rainforest and mountain habitats, leaving destitute the people who rely on the land for their subsistence. Jul 16,2022 During his childhood, Pich lived with his family in the northwestern city of Battambang, where he helped his father farm and fish. | Sopheap Pich has been featured in articles for Hyperallergic, Christie's Daily and The Art Newspaper. From three-dimensional voluptuous pieces based on anatomical structures, the stomach and heart, to abstract two-dimensional landscapes constructed on a grid of bamboo and rattan, Pichs sculptures are as diverse in meaning as they are in form. Its about life as a focus. In that vein, memory and the senses frequently override the political in the pieces on view at the Met. FIAC, the International Contemporary Art Fair, one of the seminal, global, annual art events, has celebrated its 47th edition in Paris.