Phnom Penh & Exhibition : « Évanescence », Art in Flux at Raffles Hotel Le Royal

On April 27, 2026, more than seventy guests gathered in the salons of the Raffles Hotel Le Royal for the opening of Évanescence, the new solo exhibition by Cambodian artist Nout Daro, presented by The Gallerist in collaboration with Phnom Penh's legendary hotel. It was, by general consensus, a resounding success.

Art as a State of Transition

From the moment you enter the room, the decor speaks volumes. Large-format canvases rise between crystal chandeliers and gilded mirrors. Faces emerge from foliage — neither entirely human nor fully vegetal — suspended in an intermediate zone between presence and dissolution. Lotus flowers bloom and unravel. The tones are aquatic, mossy, infused with a subdued golden light. One thinks of an underwater dream, a memory fading without fully disappearing.

Évanescence is a series of paintings that probes the fragility of existence — the beauty of the natural world and the human condition, always threatened with disappearance, yet capable of enduring through memory and collective heritage.

Across the canvases, Nout Daro's work unfolds this paradox with rare mastery: faces resist portrait conventions and appear as surfaces shaped by organic transformation, erosion, and temporal decomposition — suspended in a liminal space where stillness and movement coexist.

Julie Thai, Voice of The Gallerist

It was Julie Thai, director of The Gallerist, who opened the evening. In a sober and sincere speech, she placed the right words on an artistic practice she has supported for several years. “We at The Gallerist are thrilled to see artists explore, flourish, and push further in their art. Tonight, we have the privilege of presenting the latest works by Cambodian artist Nout Daro, with whom we have worked closely for a few years.”

She then described the very essence of the exhibition:

“Évanescence questions the idea of impermanence: how beauty exists only for an instant before disappearing or transforming. Évanescence is not just loss; it is above all transformation. In Daro's works, forms emerge and dissolve: faces merge into leaves, lotus flowers bloom and fade, suggesting the cycles of life, decline, and renewal.”

And she added, in a conclusion that resonated through the room: “Évanescence reminds us that while much is fragile, not everything is lost. Memory, culture, and art endure through the centuries. The beauty of a shared experience and moments spent together persists.”

A New Khmer Modern Menu, in Dialogue with the Art

The evening was not limited to the canvases. In perfect resonance with the exhibition's theme, Le Royal restaurant seized the opportunity to launch its new Khmer Modern Set Menu — a menu that reinterprets Cambodian culinary classics with a contemporary sensibility.

Offered in three, four, or five courses, the menu features creations inspired by Khmer culinary heritage: a Pomelo Terrine with river lobster and grilled coconut, evoking Nham Kroch Th'long; a Seafood Consommé infused with galanga, inspired by Samlor Kroeung Samott; a Lacquered Duck Breast with eggplant puree and Thai basil, paying homage to Tear Dot Trob; an Australian Rang Dang Ribeye simmered in red curry, a nod to the famous Curry Sach Ko Saraman; and to finish, a crispy Coconut Spring Roll served with chocolate sauce, in memory of Num Chhayor Doung.

During the cocktail, the small bites served on white porcelain spoons — carefully seasoned, carried on silver trays — circulated through the crowd with the same discreet elegance found in Daro's canvases: nothing ostentatious, everything precise.

An Artist in Motion

Nout Daro, born in 1991 in Kandal province, is a contemporary visual artist whose singular practice weaves together nature, Khmer culture, and questions of identity. A graduate in sculpture and painting from the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh in 2018, he has established himself as one of the most remarkable voices on Cambodia's contemporary art scene.

His journey was forged against the odds: his family, skeptical of an artist's future, long opposed his vocation. Supported by an art-passionate uncle, Daro persevered, crafting a deeply personal pictorial language. Inspired from the start by the natural environments he explores during regular camping trips in Cambodia's forests and mountains, he began with a realist style before evolving toward a more abstract and symbolic practice.

His works are created on cotton-linen canvas using acrylic and spray paint, distinguished by their layered surfaces and gestural interventions, generating palpable depth and remarkable atmospheric movement.

In its artist's statement, The Gallerist poses the exhibition's central question with striking precision: Évanescence thus becomes a reflection on what fades, what endures, and how human action draws the boundary between the two.

This question, Nout Daro poses with his brushes and spray cans, on linen and cotton. The answer remains open — and that may be its greatest strength.

Évanescence, Nout Daro's solo exhibition, is on view at the Raffles Hotel Le Royal, Phnom Penh.

More photographs here...

Information: The Gallerist, #15/17 Street 240 (corner Street 19), Phnom Penh — www.thegallerist.asia*