FARMERS & FRESHIES

an Exhibition of Portraits by
Nov Cheanick & Ouk Sochivy

Nov Cheanick Ouk Sochivy

Farmer 8, Farmers series, 2010, ink on paper For Wedding Reception 2, Freshies series, 2010, oil on canvas

Sa Sa Art Gallery #7, St 360, Phnom Penh • 097 7320 555 • www.sasaart.info
 FARMERS & FRESHIES
an Exhibition of Portraits
by Nov Cheanick and Ouk Sochivy

Sa Sa Art Gallery is honored to present the duet Farmers & Freshies, an exhibition of
portraiture by two of Cambodia’s young emerging artists Nov Cheanick (1989) and Ouk
Sochivy (1986).

In Cambodia, portraits are commonly commissioned by people seeking their representative

likeness, or even an enhancement or perfection of their likeness. “Realism” is the expected
and respected result, whether in the form of photography or painting. Nov Cheanick’s
Farmers and Ouk Sochivy’s Freshies offer a dramatically different take on the purpose and
potential diversity of portraiture. The artist’s similarities begin and end with their practice of
painting uncommissioned, anonymous portraits as a means of personal expression. It is their
differences however - both in artistic gesture and their choice of representative community -
that stimulate a synergetic conversation beyond art and towards contemporary Cambodian
society.

Nov grew up in rural Battambang province, where he lives today, and where he finds the
subjects for his paintings: subsistent rice farmers, both men and women, young and old. Ouk
is an urbanite. Born, raised, and living in Phnom Penh, her subjects depict a new identity in
the Khmer culture: Freshies - the winners and followers of increasingly common beauty and
talent contests for youth.

Nov differentiates himself from his subjects – his outlook of a bright future is connected to
having finished high school and continuing his art education, while he connects the farmer’s
struggle and poverty in part to their absence of formal education. It is not only a lack of
education of course that sidelines farmers from their once respected position in Khmer
society and culture. Although they remain one of Cambodia’s most valuable populations and
resources today, they struggle from loose and changing law and land titles, land grabbing,
rarity of irrigation systems or machinery or storage, and an expanding national economy that
lures them to urban areas, to name but a few circumstances.

Like the farmer’s precarious, nature-dependent livelihoods, Nov’s process is also mercurial.
He considers his black ink paintings on paper an emotional process -the reactive moment
when the water and ink meet is a metaphor for our reaction to unpredictable circumstances
in life. Removing his subjects from their original context and titling them by number only
further extends this metaphor to the audience – as we “meet” these blurred and anonymous
faces, we can only meet our own associations and emotions.

Although Ouk’s subjects are also unnamed, she identifies closely with the community she
paints. The Freshie Boys and Girls contest was first sponsored by a telephone company a
decade ago and has since contributed to a new breed of Cambodian youth modeled after
the contest categories: beauty and fashion sense inspired by globalised trends from
neighboring Asian metropolises like Hong Kong and Seoul, interpersonal skills, formal
education, and performing or artistic skills.

Ouk’s process is not only that of a painter, but equally a stylist. She pairs elements from
magazines, snapshots, and often her own details as she decides what backdrop, clothing
and accessories, hair-style, make-up, and pose her characters will take. The resulting flat,
colorful oil paintings on canvas recall both playful, child-like renderings of stylish grown-ups
while they offer a window to the new role model of many Cambodian youth today.

Co-curators,
Lyno Vuth and Erin Gleeson
 

Nov Cheanick
Farmer 1, Farmers series, 2010
Ink on paper
56x76cm 
 

Nov Cheanick
Farmer 2, Farmers series, 2010
Ink on paper
56x76cm 
 

Nov Cheanick
Farmer 3, Farmers series, 2010
Ink on paper
56x76cm 
 

Nov Cheanick
Farmer 4, Farmers series, 2010
Ink on paper
56x76cm 
 

Nov Cheanick
Farmer 5, Farmers series, 2010
Ink on paper
56x76cm 
 

Nov Cheanick
Farmer 6, Farmers series, 2010
Ink on paper
56x76cm 
 

Nov Cheanick
Farmer 7, Farmers series, 2010
Ink on paper
56x76cm 
 

Nov Cheanick
Farmer 8, Farmers series, 2010
Ink on paper
56x76cm 
 

Nov Cheanick
Farmer 9, Farmers series, 2010
Ink on paper
56x76cm 
 

Nov Cheanick
Farmer 10, Farmers series, 2010
Ink on paper
56x76cm 
 

Ouk Sochivy
For Clubbing 1, Freshies series, 2010
Oil on canvas
50x60cm 
 

Ouk Sochivy
For Clubbing 2, Freshies series, 2010
Oil on canvas
50x60cm 
 
 

Ouk Sochivy
For Wedding Eeception 1, Freshies series, 2010
Oil on canvas
50x60cm 
 

Ouk Sochivy
For Outdoor 1, Freshies series, 2010
Oil on canvas
50x60cm 
 
 

Ouk Sochivy
For Outdoor 2, Freshies series, 2010
Oil on canvas
50x60cm 
 
 

Ouk Sochivy
For Wedding Reception 2, Freshies series, 2010
Oil on canvas
60x80cm 
 

Ouk Sochivy
For Outdoor 3, Freshies series, 2010
Oil on canvas
50x60cm 
 
 

Ouk Sochivy
For Clubbing 3, Freshies series, 2010
Oil on canvas
50x60cm 
 
 

Ouk Sochivy
For Outdoor 4, Freshies series, 2010
Oil on canvas
50x60cm 
 
 

Ouk Sochivy
For Wedding Reception 3, Freshies series, 2010
Oil on canvas
50x60cm 
 
NOV Cheanick OUK Sochivy
Born: 1989, Battambang Born: 1984, Phnom Penh
Lives and works: Battambang Lives and works: Phnom Penh

Group Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions

2009 2009
Cambodia: The Memory Workshop To Be Continued
Bophana Audiovisual Resource Centre Bophana Audiovisual Resource Centre
Phnom Penh Phnom Penh

Group Exhibitions

2009
Forever Until Now: Contemporary Art from
Cambodia
10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong