Chath Piersath is a Cambodian artist, poet and humanitarian. He lost much of his family during the Khmer Rouge regime and was forced into a labor camp as a child before fleeing to Thailand in 1979. In 1981, he im­mi­grat­ed to the United States. Piersath works mainly with painting and collage and frequently experiments with media, often repurposing and re­cy­cling materials such as wooden slats and roof shingles. His paintings are deeply expressionistic and seem to attempt to reconcile haunting me­mor­ies of his childhood with his life in the United States and humanitarian work in Cambodia.

Image: © Chath Piersath, Tally Beck Contemporary Gallery