PRESS Cambodia Daily, 06.2014
“In his elders, artist sees a generation hiding behind the rain”, Cambodia Daily, 2014
Author: novch
‘… FAR AWAY, OVER THERE, THE OCEAN’
… Far away, over there, the ocean, 2019 by Vandy Rattana.
First actor as a painter in a movie by Vandy Rattana, presented at the Singapore Biennale 2019.
Vandy Rattana, …far away, over there, the ocean, 2019.
FACE FORWARD, 2019, TreeLine Gallery, Cambodia
FACE FORWARD, group exhibition, 26 January – 31 March 2019
Treeline Gallery’s first group exhibition of 2019, Face Forward, pays attention to the past and look forward from now artworks by Sopheap PICH, THANG Sothea, NOV Cheanick, Asasax and HKA & Partners.
Each of the featured artists address the past through their practice of contemporary art, highlighting questions regarding consumption and production. Some of the works reflect the transfer of knowledge, exposing a process that is usually reserved for artist’s studio. These artists are active at a time that has a completely different precondition to that of their forbearers. They have their roots in history in different ways, each telling their story uniquely, and making their artworks come alive in their own ways.
The artists share a close relationship to the everyday, as well as to nature, space, and sound. {…}
Cheanick’s work creates dynamic surfaces which, when accompanied by his poetic words, bring the viewer closer to the way in which the artist challenges the limits of perception. In his paintings, Cheanick merges the conscious and unconscious worlds of mind and heart. His references and images have become increasingly abstract, but regardless of how imageless his canvases may seem, they remain in a way, representational. There are human and animal figures, bodies of water, states of being, skies, the earth, maps and rain.
Meta Moeng, curator.
Thorns in the swamp, 2018 ©Nov Cheanick
Exhibition view
Catalog cover
PRESS South East Asia Globe, 02.2019
PRESS Phnom Penh Post, 02.2019
Art residency, Mit Jai Inn Studio
Sharing time with the artist Mit Jai Inn in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Sans titre, 2019 ©Nov Cheanick
Champ labouré, 2019 ©Nov Cheanick
Sans titre, 2019 ©Nov Cheanick
Residency view
Residency view
Sans titre, 2019 ©Nov Cheanick
Territoire, 2019 ©Nov Cheanick
DÉ-RIVES, 2018, Pavillon du parc André Citröen, France
DÉ-RIVES, solo exhibition, 6 September – 11 October 2018
Dé-Rives est une exposition monographique expérimentale de Nov Cheanick (1989, Cambodge) en réflexion autour du point de vue. Peintre de la matérialité du sol, l’artiste explore un autre élément haut dans le ciel à l’occasion de son exposition au Pavillon André Citröen invité par Aerophile avec le concours du Ballon Generali.
Les questions du plan, du territoire et des frontières tant mentaux que physiques deviennent essentiels dans sa pratique et s’ajoutent à ses recherches autour de la perception. Comment vois-tu le sol depuis les airs ? “Il n’y a pas de haut ou de bas, vous pouvez ne pas choisir parce que vous êtes au milieu de nulle part, c’est ce qui vous permet de tout voir comme vous l’imaginez.”
Nov Cheanick peint au sol pour cette exposition afin de recréer la sensation de voler hors des repères habituels. Il perd ses cadres et continue son exploration physique des mondes ou chaque marque appelle la suivante, imprimée dans la matière.
Définitivement abstraite son oeuvre entre peinture, sculpture et installation nous offre l’exploration de surfaces vibrantes, à la limite de nos perceptions, entre mondes conscients et inconscients. “C’est comme quand vous êtes en train de marcher, debout sur vos pieds : c’est une norme, c’est la façon dont vous traversez le monde et votre vie. Il y a une fin à cela. Quand je choisis de ne pas utiliser de cadre, il n’y a plus de limite, plus de norme, je garde seulement la vérité. Je suis dans le ciel.”
Tout est question de point de vue.
—
Dé-Rives, is an experimental solo exhibition by Nov Cheanick (1989, Cambodia), questioning the point of view. Painter of the materiality of the ground, the artist explores another element up in the sky for this exhibition at the Pavillon André Citroën invited by Aerophile with Le Ballon Generali.
The matter of map, territories and borders both mental and physical are essential to his practice and complete his researches about the perception. How do you see the ground from the air? “There is no up, no down, you can not choose because you are in the middle of nothing, that allow you to see everything as you imagine it.”
Nov Cheanick paints on the floor for this exhibition, in order to recreate the sensation of flying in the air without usual landmark. He got rid of the frames and continues his physical exploration of the world where each sign creates the next one, printed in the texture. Definitively abstract, his work includes paintings, sculptures and installations that offer us an exploration of vibrant surfaces, at the borders of our perceptions, between conscious and unconscious worlds.
“It’s like when you’re walking, standing on your feet: it’s a norm, it is your way to cross the world and your life. There is an end for that. When I choose not to use frames, I choose that there is no limit anymore, no norm. I only keep the truth. I’m in the sky.” Everything is just a matter of points of view.
Exhibition view, Dé-Rive, 2018
Exhibition view
Evolution, geological view 1 & 2, 2018 detail ©Nov Cheanick
Dirty sky & Estompé, 2018 ©Nov Cheanick
Exhibition view
Exhibition view, Dé-Rive, 2018
Exhibition view, Dé-Rive, 2018
PRESS Le Petit Journal, 09.2018
Thank you to Aérophile’s team, Mathieu Gobbi, Ballon Generali de Paris & Marcelline.
CYCLE, 2018, Rosewood Gallery, Cambodia
CYCLE, solo exhibition, 1 June – 1 September 2018
Cycle surveys one decade of Cheanick’s artistic practice, from early figurative drawing studies to recent abstract paintings, and is themed around both physical and transcendental regeneration.
“I don’t create anything new; I just transform what exists. What I learn from people and my environment is collected and combined into one painting,” says the artist.
Influenced by meditation and the breathing cycle as a tool for greater awareness, Nov is interested in the undefined boundaries of perception. The evolution of his work attests to this. During his education, he gravitated away from the strict brushwork of realism and towards abstraction. He sought less control and predictability, abandoning the brush completely in favor of painting with a traditional wooden broom. His process became physical, emotive and responsive.
Over the years, his references and images have become increasingly abstract. From a palette of mostly muted, dark and earthen colors, to his most recent gray zones. Nov’s densely layered surfaces deliberately blur both the subject and the perception of figure and ground. Nevertheless, no matter how imageless his canvases may seem, they remain representational. There are human and animal figures, bodies of water, and states of being. There are skies, the earth, and maps; there is rain and what follows.
Nov Cheanick’s dynamic surfaces, accompanied by his poetic words, bring the viewer closer to the ways in which he challenges the limits of perception, merging conscious and unconscious worlds, with his mind and his heart in his paintings.
Erin Gleeson, curator.
Exhibition view
Exhibition view
Exhibition view
Exhibition view
Exhibition view
Exhibition view
Thorns in the swamp, 2018 ©Nov Cheanick
PRESS Khmer Times, 06.2018
PRESS Asia Life, 06.2018
Thank you to Erin Gleeson, Sin Many and Prum Ero for this exhibition.
Photographs ©2017 Prum Ero
A SMALL PART, 2017, Tini Art Space, Cambodia
A SMALL PART, solo exhibition, 25 September – 3 November 2017
Nov Cheanick’s series arrives at Tini at a fitting moment. The six paintings in A Small Part arrive just a few days after Pchum Ben and depart with the arrival of Omtuk (Water Festival) in early November. The five weeks of the exhibition thus coincide with the final weeks of the Rainy Season, framed by two uniquely Cambodian holidays steeped in ritual. The former is marked by a period of ritual gathering while the latter celebrates the ritual change in the flow of the river. Both emphasize the collectivity of community or nature over the individual. Cheanick’s exhibit turns to those natural forms which may persist: trees, fields, landscapes. A wider body of nature which crosses borders, cultures, and societies.
With A Small Part, Cheanick pushes the viewer to consider the elements that together create the vastness of the world. The good, the bad, the beautiful, the hideous — for Cheanick, they all make up the details of his larger vision. He asks what do the small parts in lives, in rituals, in landscapes, in flows form once brought together ?
Daniel Mattes, curator.
The same time, 2017 ©Nov Cheanick
Opening
Exhibition View
Opening
Together, 2017 ©Nov Cheanick
Exhibition view
PRESS Cambodge Mag, 11.2017
PRESS VOA Cambodia, 11.2017
Tini Café and Artspace “A small Part” by Nov Cheanick, Album
Thank you to Daniel Mates for this exhibition.
Photographs ©2017 Prum Ero
BREAK THE SYSTEM, 2017, Gallery Lee, France
BREAK THE SYSTEM, solo exhibition, 4 May – 27 May 2017
Nov Cheanick « détruit le système ». Surtout le sien. Il aspire à créer sans aucun contrôle, aucune pression, créer librement non seulement spirituellement mais également par son corps et son âme. Cette série témoigne du lâcher-prise de l’artiste.
”Avant, je pensais beaucoup à ce que les gens diraient de mes peintures, j’étais trop timide pour exprimer ce que je ressentais au plus profond de moi. Ces nouvelles œuvres viennent de mon âme. C’est mon vrai moi, sans aucune intention de séduire ou de créer de la beauté ”. Dans cette série l’artiste se questionne sur l’emprise de la société sur nos vies : travail, politique, famille, amour. La vraie liberté est elle possible ? Sommes-nous bloqués dans un système qui nous dirige ?
Tel un alchimiste, Nov Cheanick recherche les ingrédients parfaits pour créer le mélange qui illustrera ses pensées. Matériaux et pensées façonnent son travail.
Nov Cheanick présente ses oeuvres pour mettre en évidence le pouvoir de la matérialité des choses. Ses peintures sont telles des sculptures, elles associent différents matériaux : cendres de cigarettes, épaisses couches de couleurs, terre, feuilles mortes, cordes de guitare. Elles révèlent des combinaisons de formes et motifs complexes qui ne cherchent pas à séduire mais à révéler le véritable caractère de son travail.
Exhibition view
Opening
Exhibition view
Temple, 2017 ©Nov Cheanick
Galerie Lee, “Break the system” by Nov Cheanick
BREAK THE SYSTEM, 2016, Sangker Gallery, Cambodia
BREAK THE SYSTEM, solo exhibition, 18 December 2016 – 28 February 2017
Nov Cheanick breaks the system. First and foremost, he breaks down his own. He thrives to create without any form of control, without any pressure – to create freely not only in his mind, but also through his body and his soul.
This series testifies to a broad “let it be” mentality of the artist. “I’ve destroyed my own system”, says Nov Cheanick, “before, I thought too much about what people would say about my paintings, I was too shy to express what I felt from deep inside. This new artwork comes from my soul. This is the real me – without any intention to seduce or to create beauty for others”.
In this series, the artist comments on society and on all of the different ways of control that we endure in our lives: work, politics, family, love. Is real and true freedom ever possible? Are we, in one way or another, always stuck in a system that controls us?
Thoughts and materials are inseparable in the artwork of Nov Cheanick. He is like an alchemist, working relentlessly to find the perfect ingredients for a concoction that expresses his finest thoughts.
Nov Cheanick stages his paintings to highlight the power of materiality on society. His paintings are like sculptures, but with different materials: thick layers of colors, earth, dead leaves, cigarette ashes, guitar strings… These combinations reveal intricate formations, emerging patterns, emphasis, and a wealth of character. His paintings come alive through your imagination, pushed forward by the substance behind his work.
Laura Petit, curator.
Find beauty inside dirt, 2016 ©Nov Cheanick
Opening
Opening
Way of the world, 2016, detail ©Nov Cheanick
PRESS Cambodia Daily, 01.2017
Thank you to Laura Petit for this exhibition.
Photographs ©2016 Sidonie Frances
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