Visual Arts Library
Svay Ken
(1933 - )Works
The Flight from Phnom Penh (History of My Family Series, No. 1)Spreading Manure (History of My Family Series, No. 10)
The Division of the Country (History of My Family Series, No. 11)
Confusion (History of My Family Series, No. 12)
The Accusation (History of My Family Series, No. 13)
We Have Only Ourselves and Our Five Children (History of My Family Series, No. 14)
Leaf Huts: The Evening Meal (History of My Family Series, No. 2)
Taking Salt from Kep (History of My Family Series, No. 3)
The Hospital (History of My Family Series, No. 4)
Along the Road Home From the Hospital (History of My Family Series, No. 5)
The Separation of Families (History of My Family Series, No. 6)
The Meeting (History of My Family Series, No. 7)
A New Job (History of My Family Series, No. 8)
Manure (History of My Family Series, No. 9)
Country
Cambodia
Biography
Svay Ken was born in the Takeo Province, Cambodia. He became a novice monk at the age of 14, but left the order in 1952 in order to help his family by working in the fields. In 1955, he ventured to Phnom Penh in search of work, and became a waiter and a handyman at the Hotel le Royal. In 1975 the Pol Pot regime forced Svay Ken and his wife and children to flee the city and return to Takeo Province. Four years later, he and his family returned to Phnom Penh and Svay Ken resumed working at the hotel until he retired in 1994. It was during his later years of working at the hotel that he began drawing and painting vivid scenes of everyday Cambodian life, scenes depicting Cambodia's civil war (1970-75), and the terror of the Khmer Rouge (1975-78). Svay Ken intends for his works to remind future generations of the events of the past and his work has garnered international attention. He was recently chosen as Cambodia's entry in the Fukuoka Art Trienniale and his works have appeared in Asian Art News, Vietnam Times, and The New York Times.
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