Sopheap Pich

The World Outside

March 7, 2019 — April 19, 2019


ENLARGE

At Rest, 2019

rattan, goat hide, wire, synthetic resin, damar resin, beeswax, charcoal

61 x 39 x 28 inches (154 x 99 x 72 cm)

ENLARGE

Dyad, 2019

wood, bamboo, rattan, wire

117 ¾ x 65 ¼ x 12 ¼ inches (299 x 166 x 31 cm)

ENLARGE

New Dwellings, 2018

bamboo, rattan, wire

126 x 63 x 63 inches (320 x 160 x 160 cm)

ENLARGE

Love Hill Trail, 2018

bamboo, wood, goat hide, wire, bronze

67 ¾ x 64 x 26 inches (172 x 163 x 66 cm)

ENLARGE

Trenches, 2019

rattan, goat hide, wire

49 x 43 ¼ x 3 ¾ inches (124 x 110 x 9.5 cm)

ENLARGE

Trenches 2, 2019

bamboo, rattan, cow hide, wire

147 ¼ x 135 x 5 inches (374 x 343 x 13 cm)

ENLARGE

Riding for the Feeling, 2018

bamboo, wood, stone, antler

81 ½ x 21 ¼ x 16 ½ inches (207 x 54 x 42 cm)

ENLARGE

Installation view of "The World Outside" at Tyler Rollins Fine Art

March 7 - April 19, 2019

 

ENLARGE

Installation view of "The World Outside" at Tyler Rollins Fine Art

March 7 - April 19, 2019

 

ENLARGE

Installation view of "The World Outside" at Tyler Rollins Fine Art

March 7 - April 19, 2019

 

ENLARGE

Installation view of "The World Outside" at Tyler Rollins Fine Art

March 7 - April 19, 2019

 

ENLARGE

Installation view of "The World Outside" at Tyler Rollins Fine Art

March 7 - April 19, 2019

 

ENLARGE

Installation view of "The World Outside" at Tyler Rollins Fine Art

March 7 - April 19, 2019

 

ENLARGE

Installation view of "The World Outside" at Tyler Rollins Fine Art

March 7 - April 19, 2019

 

ENLARGE

Installation view of "The World Outside" at Tyler Rollins Fine Art

March 7 - April 19, 2019

 

ENLARGE

Installation view of "The World Outside" at Tyler Rollins Fine Art

March 7 - April 19, 2019

 

Works

INSTALLATION VIEWS

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The World Outside, the second of a two-part exhibition of new works by Sopheap Pich, features seven floor-standing or wall-hanging sculptures, mainly organic in form. Constructed from strips of bamboo and rattan, Pich’s primary media, they also make use of a diverse array of natural materials, including goat hide, stone, and antler, as well as naturally curved bamboo stalks. The title of the exhibition takes its inspiration from Louis MacNeice’s poem “Snow,” in which the narrator is transfixed by the contrast between a vase of pink roses placed in front of his window, and the snowy scene outside. Contemplating how these two opposing realities, the worlds inside and outside the house, are demarcated by a few windowpanes, he comes to the realization that “there is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses” – for they are separated by something much more complex and profound that gives us a hint of the mysterious complexities of the world. Each of the works in the exhibition in some way embodies this sense of a hidden mystery that is revealed through an intimate encounter with a physical object in the natural world. In each we feel that something concealed or overlooked has been exposed, often at an unfamiliar scale: biomorphic structures based on the human heart and circulatory system; obscure elements of the natural landscape, such as tiny seed pods and sinuous trails made by passing animals; or the rough bricks, each unique, that are typically covered over during building construction. The distinction between flora and fauna begins to blur, with an open heart resembling a fruitful vine, or a pair of seed pods becoming human lungs. The materials themselves embody this process, with goat hide often wrapping the rattan structures, like skin stretched over a skeleton. “All the works in the exhibition have different qualities of ambiguity, and one has to read into the materials and forms for clues to their meaning,” Pich explains. “This exhibition can be thought of as a musician’s album, with each ‘song’ or artwork standing for the various things I think about on a daily basis. But when they all come together, they have an emotional rhythm and narrative structure that shows a journey through the relationship between personal reflection and the external objects or events that we experience which are accepted by our mind but exist independently of it.”

Pich is widely considered to be Cambodia’s most internationally prominent contemporary artist. Born in Battambang, Cambodia, in 1971, he moved with his family to the United States in 1984. After receiving his BFA (University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1995) and MFA (The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1999), he returned to Cambodia in 2002, where he began working with local materials – bamboo, rattan, burlap, beeswax and earth pigments gathered from around Cambodia – to make sculptures inspired by bodily organs, vegetal forms, and abstract geometric structures. Pich’s childhood experiences during the genocidal conditions of late 1970s Cambodia had a lasting impact on his work, informing its themes of time, memory, and the body. His sculptures stand out for their subtlety and power, combining refinement of form with a visceral, emotive force.

Pich has exhibited at numerous museums and biennials around the world, including Documenta (2013) and the Venice Biennale (2017). In 2013, he presented a highly acclaimed solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, entitled Cambodian Rattan: The Sculptures of Sopheap Pich. The museum’s first solo show given to a contemporary Southeast Asian artist, the exhibition constituted what Art in America called “a cameo retrospective, since its 10 works accurately reflect the range of the artist’s motifs from 2005 to late 2012.” It included several large biomorphic rattan sculptures alongside works from Pich’s grid-based Wall Reliefs, an ongoing series that reflects his interest in abstraction and conceptualization. Pich’s works can be found in numerous museum collections around the world, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Cleveland Museum of Art; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Singapore Art Museum; M+, Hong Kong; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; and Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.

EXHIBITION REVIEWS

GENERAL PRESS

The Straits Times, Art from Angkor Wat at Asian Civilisations Museum

April, 2018


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Orientations, Sopheap Pich: Inspirations and Reflections

January, 2018


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NBCDFW, Sopheap Pich’s ‘Rang Phnom Flower’ Flourishes at the Crow Collection of Asian Art

July, 2017


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Dallas Observer, Cambodian Artist Sopheap Pich Teaches Us the Language of His Giant Rattan Sculptures

July, 2017


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Fort Worth Business Press, Cambodia artist Sopheap Pich to display at the Crow Collection Of Asian Art

May, 2017


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Art Asia Pacific, Carpe Veneto: The 57th Venice Biennale & National Pavilions

May, 2017


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The Crow Collection Of Asian Art, Hidden Nature: Sopheap Pich

2017


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Sleek, Venice Biennale: 10 Artists Everyone Will Be Talking About and Why

February, 2017


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The Cambodia Daily Sopheap Pich

February, 2017


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The Phnom Penh Post, In the studio with Sopheap Pich

February, 2017


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Ackland Art Museum Press Release, Ackland Art Museum Reimagines – and Reinstalls – Galleries of Asian Art

December, 2016


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Bloomberg Brilliant Ideas: Sopheap Pich

December, 2016


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Art Asia Pacific, Animate Bodies of Work

March, 2016


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The New Yorker, Sopheap Pich

December, 2015


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Artinfo, Sopheap Pich’s “Structures” at Tyler Rollins Fine Art

November, 2015


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Art Basel Year 46

2015


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Art Loft, Why Southeast Asian Art Now?

December, 2014


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Sopheap Pich on Rattan, Sculpture, and Abstraction

April, 2014


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Indianapolis Museum of Art, A Contemporary Spring at the IMA

2014


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Sopheap Pich on Morning Glory as Food and Artwork

March, 2014


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Bird, Sopheap Pich

2014


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Art Asia Pacific, No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia

2014


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Blouin Art Info, Rattan to Revolutionary: “Collection+ Sopheap Pich” at SCAF Sydney

October, 2013


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ABC Radio Australia, Cambodian sculptor draws on rural influences in Australian exhibition

October, 2013


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Dojima River Biennale 2013

July, 2013


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The Boston Globe, Showcasing a continent’s art at Smith College

May, 2013


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The New York Times, Cambodian Rattan: The Sculptures of Sopheap Pich

May, 2013


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Art in America, Woven into History

May, 2013


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Time Out New York, Ten sculpture exhibitions you should see

May, 2013


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Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cambodian Rattan: The sculptures of Sopheap Pich

May, 2013


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Orientations, Cambodian Rattan: Memory and Place in the Art of Sopheap Pich

May, 2013


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The Economist, Out of adversity

April, 2013


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The Wall Street Journal, Cambodian Art Rises From the Ashes

April, 2013


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The New York Times, Dancing Well Is the Best Revenge

April, 2013


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Gallery Guide, Cambodian Rattan: The Sculptures of Sopheap Pich

April, 2013


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Asian Art Newspaper, Sopheap Pich

April, 2013


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The New Yorker, Metropolitan Museum

March, 2013


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Blouin Art Info, Asia-NYC

March, 2013


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Smith College Museum of Art – New Acquisitions

February, 2013


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Sculpture Now, Handmade

2013


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Documenta (13) The Guidebook

June, 2012


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Art Asia Pacific, Where I Work

May, 2012


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Invisible Cities exhibition at Mass MOCA

April, 2012


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Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art, Of Trans(national) Subjects and Translation: The Art and Body Language of Sopheap Pich

2012


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The Seattle Times, Cambodian artist evokes tumult of his homeland

November, 2011


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The Stranger, A Weightless Series of Cages

November, 2011


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Compound at the Henry Art Gallery

November, 2011


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Meditation: Asian Art Biennial 2011 catalogue

November, 2011


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The Art Newspaper, The rebuilding of Cambodian art

October, 2011


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The Examiner, San Francisco, Modern ‘Buddha Presence’ at Asian Art Museum

September, 2011


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Sculpture, Sopheap Pich: Return to Cambodia

September, 2011


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Thailand Tatler, Woven Narrative

July, 2011


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Art Journal, Art without History? Southeast Asian Artists and Their Communities in the Face of Geography

July, 2011


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The Wall Street Journal – Icons, A River View Reshapes a Sculptor’s Work

April, 2011


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Frieze, Singapore Biennial 2011

April, 2011


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The Wall Street Journal – Scene Asia, A Dream Weaver Goes Global

April, 2011


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Artforum, Singapore Biennale 2011: Open House

April, 2011


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The New York Times, Definitions of Home at the Singapore Biennale

March, 2011


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The Wall Street Journal – Scene Asia, Open House at the Singapore Biennale

March, 2011


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Treasures (Asian Art Museum of San Francisco Magazine), Here/Not Here

January, 2011


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International Herald Tribune, Cambodian Art Emerges From Horrors of a Murderous Past

December, 2010


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