REFLECTION — When Phnom Penh looks at itself in the mirror of contemporary art

The Rosewood Phnom Penh hosts an unprecedented tripartite exhibition bringing together French visual artist Théo Vallier and two Cambodian artists from the new generation, Yean Sokheng and Koeng Rithy. A dialogue of perspectives on the living city, its rhythms, and its layers.

Théo Vallier

In the word “reflection” lies a dual promise: that of the mirror, faithful and direct, and that of thought, which steps back in order to see more clearly. It is precisely this tension that the exhibition inaugurated on June 23 at the Rosewood Phnom Penh Art Gallery — on the 35th floor of the Vattanac Capital Tower, a dizzying vantage point over the Khmer capital — seeks to explore. Three artists, three perspectives, one city.

REFLECTION is not just another exhibition on Phnom Penh’s cultural calendar. It is the result of a meeting between artistic trajectories that, at first glance, seem entirely different: a Frenchman who has lived in the Kingdom for nearly two decades, and two young Cambodians from the emerging local urban art scene — a scene its own actors readily describe as “exploding.”

Théo Vallier, rust as language

Born in 1980, Théo Vallier has lived and worked in Phnom Penh since 2007, where he explores the theme of the street and its movements. A multidisciplinary artist, he constantly moves between painting, graphic design, graffiti, photography, and screen printing. But it is through a particular medium that his signature has established itself in the capital’s artistic landscape: alongside canvas painting, Vallier has developed a pictorial approach on rusted metal plates, seeking a material and aesthetic naturally present in the contemporary urban environment. His work expresses a distinct perception of urbanity and aims to remind us of the impermanence of all things and forms.

For him, rust is not an accident but a deliberate choice — a living, organic material that embodies the slow transformation of the city better than any artificial color. Phnom Penh, with its weathered facades, constant construction sites, and palimpsests of colonial architecture and contemporary concrete, offers him an inexhaustible field of exploration. Based in the capital since 2007, Vallier is also co-founder and co-organizer of the Cambodia Urban Art Festival since 2015, a platform promoting street art creation in Cambodia.

Yean Sokheng and Koeng Rithy, youth reclaiming the walls

Alongside him are two rising names in the Cambodian urban art scene. Sokheng, also known by his artist name “The Sokheng,” grew up in Phnom Penh, where he was born in 2001. Self-taught, he learned graffiti and spray painting largely on his own by watching videos on YouTube. His view of the local art market is lucid, almost activist: “The market is really a problem here. Art is not valued enough,” he says. Yet it is precisely this awareness of obstacles that fuels his determination.

Rithy Koeng and Sokheng are among the six or seven artists with diverse backgrounds who make up the core of Phnom Penh’s street art scene — a small but rapidly expanding scene. During Walls Cambodia events, they have been seen working together — Koeng with a brush, Sokheng with a spray can — bringing monumental murals to life in the city’s streets. Their presence within an institution as established as the Rosewood marks a symbolic milestone: recognition by the official art world of a creativity long confined to street spaces.

The Rosewood, a natural stage for Cambodian contemporary art

The Rosewood Phnom Penh Art Gallery has, over the years, established itself as one of the most dynamic platforms for contemporary creation in the Kingdom. Faithful to its commitment to sharing a deep sense of place with its guests and visitors, Rosewood Phnom Penh offers a contemporary exhibition space on the 35th floor dedicated to showcasing both established and emerging Cambodian artists. Quarterly exhibitions draw on Cambodia’s rich history, culture, and sensibility through an artistic lens.

The space has hosted exhibitions as diverse as Visions, Revelation — bringing together Cambodian artists and international painters around Khmer culture — as well as The Particles, a solo exhibition by digital artist Rith Bonrotanak. The gallery is open seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, and admission is free.

REFLECTION, or the portrait of a city in motion

The title of the exhibition resonates on several levels. There is the literal mirror — Phnom Penh reflected in the works of three artists who live, create, and breathe it daily. There is reflection as a critical act, as the necessary distance in the face of a city changing at a dizzying pace. And there is, perhaps, the idea of an echo between generations, cultures, and techniques: Vallier’s rusted metal in dialogue with Sokheng’s spray, Koeng’s brush responding to screen printing.

In a country where, as curator Reaksmey Yean reminds us, contemporary art is not a style but “a framework and a theory, an entry point for trying to create art that is relevant to modern times,” REFLECTION offers a rare synthesis: that of a city looking at itself without complacency, with the sharpened curiosity of those who truly inhabit it.

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REFLECTION — Exhibition by Théo Vallier, Yean Sokheng, and Koeng Rithy

Opening: Tuesday, June 23, 2025, from 6:30 PM

Art Gallery, Level 35, Rosewood Phnom Penh

Preah Monivong Boulevard 93 66, Phnom Penh

Free admission — Open 24/7