Phnom Penh, Cambodia — Australian contemporary artist and curator Anya Minko presents Tonlé to Treeline, a group exhibition exploring Cambodia’s ecosystems from river to forest, opening March 19, 2026, at Rosewood Phnom Penh.
Anya Minko is an Australian contemporary artist and curator based in Phnom Penh. Born in Australia to an Australian father and Thai mother, raised in Cambodia since 1996. Over two decades of observing the country’s landscapes and rapid development have shaped the direction of her work.
Working primarily in acrylic on canvas, Minko’s paintings move between abstraction and figuration. Her compositions are built through bold colour palettes and intricate, accumulating linework. As both curator and exhibiting artist, she frames Tonle To Treeline as a symbolic journey from water systems to forest environments, reflecting on interconnection, ecological change, and the relationship between people and place.
Having grown up along the Tonle Sap River and travelled extensively through Cambodia’s provinces, including through long-distance cycling journeys, she approaches landscape not as scenery, but as a living system shaped by memory, movement, and human presence.
Alongside her art practice, Minko is actively engaged in community development and sustainability initiatives in Cambodia. This dual perspective, as both artist and practitioner, informs her interest in the relationship between people and the environments that sustain them. Through her art, she positions contemporary painting as a space for reflection, dialogue, and attention to Cambodia’s rivers, forests, and ecosystems.
Joining Minko are two established Cambodian contemporary artists whose practices add distinct perspectives to the exhibition.
Hom Rith is a Cambodian visual artist working primarily in watercolour. Hom Rith’s practice has long focused on everyday life in Cambodia, capturing quiet gestures. His works reflect an intimate relationship with place, presenting moments that feel both personal and collective. For Tonlé to Treeline, Hom Rith explores Cambodia’s natural ecosystems, highlighting biodiversity and lesser-known habitats. Through soft washes and clean, restrained compositions, his paintings are presented not only as sites of beauty but as living systems that invite care, reflection, and protection.
Ouk Chimvichet is one of Cambodia’s leading contemporary sculptors, whose work bridges the realms of traditional symbolism and modern artistic expression. He works primarily with recycled metal, transforming industrial material waste into dynamic, textured sculptures that explore Cambodian culture and nature. A graduate of the Modern Sculpture Department at the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA), where he now serves as a professor in the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Vichet has dedicated his career to both artistic creation and education, nurturing a new generation of Cambodian artists and designers.
Together, the three artists create a layered dialogue across acrylic, watercolour, and sculpture. Each medium responds differently to Cambodia’s natural beauty and the shared responsibility to protect it. . By recycling and repurposing these materials, he gives them a second life, shifting their meaning from scrap to sculpture. His pieces bring physical and structural contrast to the painted works in Tonlé to Treeline.
“Growing up along the Tonlé Sap and in Cambodia has shaped how I see the world,” says Minko. “Having watched Cambodia change over the years, this exhibition is both a personal reflection and a call to value and protect the environments that sustain us.”
Tonlé to Treeline opens to the public on March 19 at 7:30 PM.
Also Read: Efforts Intensify to Preserve Indigenous Traditional Dances in Cambodia’s Northeast Highlands
