New Solo Exhibition by Nout Daro: What Endures When All Fades, Évanescence

The Gallerist, in collaboration with Raffles Hotel Le Royal, is pleased to announce Evanescence, a new solo exhibition by contemporary Cambodian visual artist Nout Daro. This exhibition presents a series of paintings that question the fragility of existence — the beauty of the natural world and the human condition, always threatened with disappearance, yet also capable of persisting through memory and collective heritage.

Nout Daro @TheGallerist

Exhibition Concept

The term «évanescence» refers to the fleeting nature of existence — what appears beautiful and meaningful, but can vanish in an instant. The exhibition probes the inherent fragility of human and natural beauty, which fades with time or disappears more abruptly due to human intervention and neglect.

The exhibition also suggests a sense of responsibility: although these forms of beauty are temporary, they can be preserved and extended through care, awareness, and protection. It explores in parallel how certain human creations — culture, civilization, artistic expression — possess a different kind of endurance, capable of surviving physical dissolution, sustained by memory, narrative, and collective heritage.

Evanescence thus becomes a reflection on what fades away, what endures, and how human action shapes the boundary between the two.

Suspended Reverie

Nout Daro's series unfolds like a suspended reverie. The boundary between human presence and the vegetal dissolves into something gently unsettling. Faces resist portrait conventions and appear as surfaces shaped by organic transformation processes, erosion, and temporal decomposition. They seem suspended in a liminal space, where stillness and movement coexist — drifting leaves, softening forms, an environment in perpetual transition.

Lotus forms appear at various stages of blooming and decomposition, reinforcing a cyclical rhythm of growth, dissolution, and renewal. Rendered in muted aquamarine tones, mossy greens, and softened earthy hues, the compositions evoke a dreamlike, immersive atmosphere. Touches of desaturated ochre and pink introduce a restrained luminosity, suggesting the persistence of life amid dissolution processes.

Executed on cotton-linen canvas with acrylic and spray paint, Daro's works stand out for their layered surfaces and gestural interventions, generating palpable depth and striking atmospheric movement.

About the Artist

Nout Daro, born in 1991 in Kandal province (Cambodia), is a contemporary visual artist whose singular practice weaves together nature, Khmer culture, and identity. Graduating in sculpture and painting from the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh in 2018, he is today one of the most notable voices on the contemporary Cambodian art scene.

His artistic journey has been forged against the odds: his family, skeptical about an artist's future, long opposed his vocation. Supported by his uncle — an art enthusiast himself — Daro persevered, crafting a deeply personal pictorial language. His sculptor grandfather and carpenter father nurtured his early sensitivity to forms and materials.

Inspired from the start by the natural environments he explores during regular camping trips in Cambodia's forests and mountains, Daro first adopted a realist style before evolving toward a more abstract and symbolic practice. His visual language draws parallels between the natural world and human life: sap flowing through leaves mirrors blood in our veins — a poetic reminder of the profound connection between humans and nature.

His work is firmly rooted in the renewal of the Cambodian art scene. After decades of silence imposed by history, a new generation of artists is emerging, eager to question symbols, revisit traditions, and redefine their place in a globalized world. Nout Daro embodies this quest for a fluid identity, where transformation is seen not as loss, but as rebirth.

Selected ExhibitionsSolo Exhibitions

2026 — Evanescence, Raffles Hotel Le Royal / The Gallerist, Phnom Penh2024 — Illusion, The Gallerist, Phnom Penh2024 — Naturality, Sofitel Phokeethra, Phnom Penh

Group Exhibitions (selection)

2025 — Vary, Rosewood Phnom Penh (with Thun Dina)2025 — Group exhibition, Epidemic, Colombes-la-Garenne, France2022 — Evolution Collection, The Gallerist, Phnom Penh2021 — Goddess, Rosewood Phnom Penh2020 — Nature Around Us, Greater Mekong Arts Festival, Phnom Penh2019 — ASEAN Cultural Program, National Museum, Phnom Penh

Awards and Distinctions

2024 — First prize, Ekarieach Competition «My Life My Rule», Phnom Penh2022 — National Water Festival Prize, Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts

Practical Information

Opening: April 27, 2026, from 6:00 PMVenue: Raffles Hotel Le Royal, Phnom Penh, CambodiaGallery: The Gallerist — #15/17 Street 240 (corner Street 19), Phnom Penh

Website: https://www.thegallerist.asia/