Sopheap was born on May 9, 1971 in the town of KohKralaw. In 1979 his family left as refugees to the camps in Thailand where he learned to speak Khmer language and began learning English.
After some transitions, including some six months in the Philippines, he settled in Amherst, Massachusetts in the USA in 1984. There he enrolled at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1990 majoring in Pre-Medicine. In the last semester, he decided to change his major from Pre-Med to Painting. In 1993, he took a school trip to photograph the Mayan Ruins in Mexico and Guatemala. In the summer of the same year, he goes on another school trip to France and Italy where he discovered the museums of Paris and the Uffizi in Florence. The year after he decides to return to Paris for one year and enrolled at the EcoleNationaled’Art at CergyPontoise.
He returned to the University of Massachusetts and finished his BFA in Painting in the spring of 1995. In 1997, he enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago and receives his MFA in Painting and Drawing in 1999. At the end of 2002, he decides to return to Cambodia for the first time. There he hadseveral painting exhibitions. Then in 2004, he makes his first rattan sculpture, which opens a totally new approach to his art practice. Since then he has continued to make works using rattan, bamboo and metal wire.
Web Site : www.sopheappich.com
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