esea contemporary is pleased to present esea Showcase 2025 spring edition, featuring a new commission ‘Further Afield’ by renowned Southeast Asian contemporary artist Sopheap Pich.
Sopheap Pich is widely celebrated as Cambodia’s most internationally acclaimed contemporary artist. His decades-long practice embodies a deep appreciation for Cambodian culture, weaving its history, nature, craftsmanship, and materials into enduring contemporary forms. Fleeing the Vietnamese invasion that ousted the Khmer Rouge, Pich and his family spent four years in Thai refugee camps before immigrating to the United States. He later studied painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, eventually returning to Cambodia in 2002. This homecoming marked a pivotal shift in his artistic practice, as he transitioned from painting to sculpture, using materials deeply connected to local landscape and culture.
‘Further Afield’, newly commissioned for esea Showcase, features a grid-like bamboo structure meticulously crafted through repeated splitting and wire binding. The use of locally rooted materials such as bamboo, rattan, beeswax, wood, stone, burlap, animal hide, and earth pigments is central to Pich’s practice. The meditative, repetitive process Pich often employs gradually gives rise to sculptures where a delicate balance of volume and transparency emerges. Much like the grid in this work, which evokes a scaffolding, Pich’s sculptures—whether biomorphic or architectural—often embody the provisional, suggesting frameworks for forms yet to materialise. Across the centre of ‘Further Afield’ runs a wave of black, created by mixing charcoal with varnish and applying it over burnt bamboo, with the nodes shaved to expose their inner texture. The resulting pattern, reminiscent of a seismograph or audio equaliser waveform, introduces a dynamic contrast between the static grid and a fluid, energetic pulse, subtly blurring the lines between form and movement.
‘Materials hold infinite possibilities,’ Pich reflects, emphasising their ability to evoke both remembered and unknown facets of his personal history and surroundings. His materials—whether bamboo, rattan, stone, or repurposed metals—are not merely sculptural elements but carriers of memory, bearing the traces of the landscapes they emerge from and the many lives they have passed through. While his works are often interpreted as being shaped by the devastation of the war—broken bodies, scarred landscapes, and ruined buildings—Pich’s works defies simple categorisation and expectation. For the artist, his practice is rooted in the slow labour of creation, a deep connection to natural materials, and a poetic meditation on transformation.
Pich’s work is held in the collections of some of the world’s leading institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Mori Art Museum, the National Gallery Singapore, and M+ in Hong Kong.
About esea Showcase
esea Showcase is a curated presentation of East and Southeast (ESEA) contemporary artworks at esea contemporary. This initiative marks the artist's debut presentation in Manchester, situated within esea contemporary’s vibrant location in the city’s Northern Quarter. As an art institution values creativity, compassion, interconnectedness, and collectivity, esea contemporary’s Showcase aims to cultivate new connections and foster meaningful artistic dialogue, both in Greater Manchester and beyond. In 2023, esea contemporary launched the inaugural edition of esea Showcase with a commission by Stephen Wong Chun Hei. For its second edition, esea Showcase has commissioned acclaimed Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich to present a new artwork. This presentation also marks Pich’s institutional debut in Greater Manchester, offering our diverse community an opportunity to engage with his profound and distinctive artistic practice.
Sopheap Pich (b. 1971, Battambang, Cambodia) is one of Cambodia’s most internationally acclaimed contemporary artists, known for his sculptural practice rooted in materiality and memory. After fleeing the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, Pich spent four years in Thai refugee camps before immigrating to the United States. He studied painting at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (BFA, 1995) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA, 1999) before returning to Cambodia in 2002—a pivotal moment that led him to shift from painting to sculpture.
Working primarily with bamboo, rattan, and other locally sourced materials, Pich creates biomorphic and architectural structures that recall scaffolding for as-yet unbuilt forms. His practice draws on personal and collective histories, referencing war, displacement, and Cambodia’s changing landscape. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, he has been experimenting with repurposed aluminium sourced from local recycling depots, creating large-scale reliefs and tree-like sculptures that continue his exploration of form, material, and memory.
Beyond his artistic practice, Pich has played a key role in Cambodia’s art community. He co-founded the artist group Saklapel and the alternative space Sala Artspace (2006–07), mentoring young Cambodian artists. He is currently a member of the Cambodian Living Arts’ Fellowship Advisory Committee, supporting the next generation of visual artists.
His work has been collected and exhibited internationally, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, Centre Pompidou, Mori Art Museum, M+, and the National Gallery Singapore. He has participated in major exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale (2017), Documenta 13 (2012), the Asia Pacific Triennale (2009), and the Gwangju Biennale (2023).