Yim Maline and Svay Sareth: two Battambang artists at The Gallerist
The gallery on Street 240 brings together two leading names in Cambodian contemporary art. The opening is on Thursday 5 November from 6pm, with both artists in attendance.
Both were born in Battambang, ten years apart. Both studied at the art schools of Beauvais and Caen in France. Now Yim Maline and Svay Sareth are showing side by side at The Gallerist in Phnom Penh. The opening takes place on Thursday 5 November, from 6pm.
Each presents a series of their own. Their work starts from personal experience. But it speaks of memory, war, displacement and a changing environment.
Yim Maline: nature as a wounded body
Her series is called A Wound That Cannot Cry Out. In it, Yim Maline treats nature as a living organism. It grows, changes, suffers and keeps trying to heal itself.
The forms interlace. They suggest cells, roots, fibres, seeds, sometimes organs. The landscape sits somewhere between the human body and the plant world. This body is in pain, but it makes no sound. Only its scars and fractures show what it is going through.
On the invitation, she is represented by Grow Up Fast: a dark mass bristling with hundreds of stems, like a colony that grew too quickly.
Born in 1982, Yim Maline trained at Phare Ponleu Selpak, the Battambang art school, from 1995 to 2003. She went on to study in France, at Beauvais and then Caen, where she earned her DNSEP, the French national higher diploma in fine art, in 2010. She is now one of Cambodia's most prominent artists. Her work looks at loss and at the long aftermath of Cambodia's post-war years, through a nature she experiences as fragile.
Svay Sareth: giant heads turned into toys
Svay Sareth presents The Decaying Heads, a series of eight soft sculptures. Their names read like characters from a legend: Boastful Giant, Dark Blue, Fierce Blue, Hateful Purple, Red Brilliance, Sleepy Guard, The Jealous Head, The Arrogance Crown.
These figures once stood for strength, immortality and absolute power. The artist rebuilds them from fabric offcuts, military camouflage and cotton stuffing. The result is a set of light, brightly coloured heads that look like oversized soft toys. On The Jealous Head, camouflage print covers the nose and forehead. Dark Blue, chosen for the invitation, wears a tall blue headdress made of dozens of small fabric flowers.
Born in 1972, Svay Sareth studied fine art in Beauvais and then at the École Régionale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Caen, graduating with a DNSEP in 2009. Back in Cambodia, he has done a great deal for contemporary art and art education in the country. He works in sculpture, installation, drawing, video and long-duration performance. His practice draws on his own experience of war, displacement and survival.
Practical information
· Opening: Thursday 5 November 2026, from 6pm, with the artists in attendance
· Venue: The Gallerist, 15-17 Street 240, Phnom Penh
· RSVP: contact@thegallerist.asia, +855 (0)17 700 328 (WhatsApp, Telegram) or +855 (0)92 700 328
· Website: www.thegallerist.asia
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