Andrew Hem American, b. 1981

Born in 1981 in Thailand after his parents fled Cambodia following the Khmer Rouge genocide, Andrew Hem grew up between two cultures: the rural animist society of his Khmer ancestors and the graffiti and skate culture that animated the Los Angeles neighborhood where his family eventually settled. Graduating from the Art Center College of Art and Design in Pasadena with a B.F.A. in illustration in 2006, Andrew Hem worked as an illustrator for several years before devoting himself entirely to his painting, expressing his own imagination in the early 2010s. Working in gouache, oil and acrylic, Andrew Hem depicts dreamlike scenes with lush colours evoking ancient or legendary Cambodian history, or showing contemporary landscapes between city and nature, composed around one or more characters. His works seem to reflect moments suspended between memories and dreams. With a very accomplished technical mastery, his work is part of a new contemporary painting trend with surrealist accents.