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Please share this to as many people as possible…

SVAY KEN – A TRIBUTE …because we loved him

Opening 6 -9pm Friday, February 13, 2009

At Java Café & Gallery

56E1 Sihanouk Blvd

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Curator:  Bradford Edwards

CURATOR STATEMENT:
“ This exhibition had to happen. There was never a question in Dana's
mind about that, but rather when and where were the only salient
concerns. She came up with a simple, yet brilliant, idea of gathering
all the Svay Ken paintings available locally here in Phnom Penh and
sharing them with the community - Svay Ken's own community.

With that goal in mind, like the town squire she cried out and
beseeched the community to step forward with their precious paintings.
People heard the call and slowly emerged from their busy lives to
donate what they had for the exhibition. It is a community-based
project that is absolutely commercial free. In fact, it is impossible
to buy a painting during this exhibition. Not one painting is for sale
and how refreshing and wonderful is that? In today's version of the
art market and the world in general, this idea is almost anarchic,
revolutionary, and unheard of.

This exhibition is a direct reflection of the community's intimate
involvement in the life of Svay Ken. Most all these people offering
their painting to be shared visited the artist's studio personally and
sat and talked with this great man. I know this because I took many of
them there myself. I probably took well over 300 different individuals
to that studio since 1996 and some bought paintings and some did not.
Most left with a little piece of the artist, a bit of oil paint,
usually made in China and then upgraded to English oils, lovingly
applied to canvas wrapped around wooden stretcher bars. Fortunately,
some of these people whom I introduced to Svay Ken are still here in
Phnom Penh and willingly want to share their treasure with the rest of
us.

We are so lucky, we who can see this show of community and
camaraderie. This show is all about the brilliance and vision of Svay
Ken, but it is also about his surrounding community. This exhibition
is about people coming together to celebrate one man's life and work,
an exceptional man, an extraordinary painter who documented what he
saw around him. Svay Ken might have stopped breathing, but his artwork
and his effect on people around him will fill all of us with love and
hope and warmth...forever.”

                                                  Bradford Edwards