Artist Statement:
Pheary is an artist and arts professional from Battambang, Cambodia, currently living in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her work pushes our collective imagination towards a better world. Working with harmful waste, ideals of natural beauty, and traditional textile, Pheary’s work sits at a truly contemporary intersection where everything is manmade and up for negotiation. Pheary seeks to constantly combine her love of teaching with her art and design, and most of her work is collaborative in nature. Working with kids from around Cambodia—and now the world—Pheary has instigated conversations about gender equality, environment, and cultural preservation through collaboratively built socially engaged sculptures.
Biography:
Pheary was born in 1990 in Battambang, Cambodia and is an artist and art teacher. She studied at Phare Ponlue Selpak art school before becoming the manager at Sammaki Community Arts, where she organized exhibitions, workshops, and taught art classes for children. In 2014, Pheary was awarded a full scholarship to study at Yamada School of Art, in Phnom Penh for seven months before returning to Sammaki as an arts teacher. She has exhibited her work all over Cambodia, including at the Institut Francais, Bophana Center, Romeet, Meta House, and Make Maek gallery and has been awarded artist residencies at Hue Artist Residency, in Vietnam, and at Sa Sa Art Projects, in Phnom Penh, both in 2016. She has done workshops for hundreds of kids, ranging from Create Cambodia, a Peace Corps initiative for 115 kids from all over Cambodia, a workshop at the US Embassy, and classes in high schools and NGO’s. https://heakpheary.tumblr.com/bio