Art Solo 2023

Richard Koh Fine Art is pleased to announce our participation in ART SOLO 2023 with a duo artist showcase featuring Malaysian artist Zac Lee (b.1968) and Cambodian artist Pen Robit (b.1991). The booth will display a collection of paintings reflecting everyday life and the efforts of urbanisation and reconstruction in Cambodia.

Zac Lee’s body of work entitled “Another Day” depicts the routine acts of everyday life through sombre and bleak hues. Lee aims to show that life can be enjoyed when slowed down, and that daily life is valuable, including the complex and tiring experiences that come with it. Lee hopes viewers can relate to the captured fragments of simple joys.

Pen Robit’s series entitled “Rebuilding on the Black” is a reflection of the destruction and deterioration of Cambodia’s culture, heritage, and architecture after the Khmer Rouge and years of conflict. Robit constructs an imaginary metropolis by merging the different parts of Cambodian society and portraying them in geometrical shapes, filled with the pattern of a traditional Cambodian scarf, the krama. The series showcases a blend between harmony and contrast, fusing colours and forms, as a testament to Robit’s ways of experimentation.

Both artists offer unique perspectives on the human experience and their work explores different facets of life through the lens of their individual backgrounds and cultures.

Pen Robit (b.1991, Battambang, Cambodia) lives and works in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Robit’s work attempts to represent Cambodia’s past, present and future socio-political fabric. He draws influences from Cambodian cultural iconography as well as ongoing societal discourses.

He has been selected as an artist-in-residence for the following: OzAsia Festival (ADELAIDE) Australia (2016); Peninsula Austronesia International Art and Culture Exchanges in Taiwan (2015); The Memory Workshop with Vann Nath & Séra Ing, Bophana Center, Phnom Penh, Cambodia (2009); South East Asian Workshop, Tep Seri Sok Sopha Studio, Chiang Mai, Thailand (2008).

Solo exhibitions include: Wings of Tomorrow (2022), Silapak Trotchaek Pneik (YK Art House) Cambodia; Out Of This World (2020), Richard Koh Fine Art, Malaysia; Beyond (2018), Tribe Cambodia, Siem Reap, Cambodia; Thread (2018), Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Krama (2013), and Untitled (2012), both at Romeet Gallery, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Zac Lee (b.1968, Johor, Malaysia) has a diploma in Fine Arts from the Kuala Lumpur College of Art (1990) and a diploma in Illustration from The One Academy of Design (1993). In 2006, he won a full sponsorship by Freeman Fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center, USA. In 2010, he was selected for the Three Shadows Residency in Beijing, China.

Lee was awarded as the finalist for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize in Hong Kong in 2014, as well as the silver award for UOB Painting of The Year 2020. He has been participating in local and international exhibitions since 2006, including The Peak Magazine’s 25^th Anniversary, Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur and ASIA WEEK NEW YORK, Louis K.Meisel Gallery, New York.

He currently resides in Kuala Lumpur, and teaches as a senior lecturer at Dasein Academy of Art, Kuala Lumpur.

Kindly download full portfolio of works here: Portfolio Art Solo 2023