Buffalo, NY — On Friday, April 8, at 7:30 pm, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery will present a free talk with artist Sopheap Pich as part of the Emerging Voices Lecture Series. Pich will discuss two of his works in the Albright-Knox’s collection, Cycle, 2011, and Luminous Falls No. I, 2013, as well as a new work, Rang Phnom Flower, 2015, which is part of the special exhibition For the Love of Things: Still Life. 

Sopheap Pich was born in Battambang, Cambodia, during a period of civil war. The Khmer Rouge eventually gained control in 1975, but they were toppled in 1979 by their former ally, Vietnam. At this point, Pich and his family fled to neighboring Thailand. They remained in refugee camps until 1983, when they immigrated to the United States. 

In his most recent works, Pich features oblique references to his early experiences, employing the common materials of daily life in Southeast Asia, such as rattan, bamboo, burlap culled from rice bags, and beeswax. Rang Phnom Flower is Pich’s most ambitious sculpture to date. Its form is based on the flower of the cannonball tree, called the “rang phnom,” which has strong cultural resonances within Cambodian culture. 

The Emerging Voices Lecture Series is generously supported by the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.

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