The Root by Pen Rabbit

The krama - an everyday item and iconic symbol of Cambodian identity - becomes a powerful visual language in "The Root," Pen Robit's new solo exhibition presented by SNA Arts Management in collaboration with Richard Koh Fine Art. Robit arranges color grids and diverse krama patterns alongside imagery of rice, vegetables, fruits, and fragments of human and animal forms, tracing the intertwined system connecting people, land, labour and environment in rural Cambodian farming life. Rice field landscapes sit alongside fragmented animal bones, capturing the exhaustion and vulnerability of farmers' daily existence and the pressures of environmental change - yet a warm orange-yellow sky, representing sunrise or sunset, runs through the work as a steady symbol of hope. Each painting follows a moment of daily life - plowing, harvesting, sewing - framed not just as survival, but as knowledge and community passed from one generation to the next. Beyond a portrait of land and livelihood, "The Root" becomes a re-emergence of identity, memory, and the emotional threads that tie people back to their origins.