About five years ago, Cambodian artist Heng Ravuth embarked on a journey—exploring human nature through the naked body.
For his latest exhibition, “Drunk Nude,” which opens Wednesday at Phnom Penh’s Java Cafe & Gallery, the 31-year-old painter has depicted the male body, distorted in different settings, reflecting the nature of people devoid of their trappings.
Each work is the result of a long process, during which he first amplified and altered photographs of himself with editing software and then transformed the resulting images using pencil and paint. The outcome is a series of multilayered acrylic paintings in which the superimposed visual elements create a collage-like impression.
“This gives me the freedom to create my own distorted reality… reflected as twisted and offbeat,” he said.
In “Naked With Dog,” a nude, tattooed man sits on a dilapidated armchair. He has a two-sided head, each side with a mouth and nose, as if attempting to keep watch over all corners of his world.
Source: Artist Explores Human Nature in Series of Nude Paintings – The Cambodia Daily
