From a nation devastated by political strife, Narath Tan’s work with clay
and charcoal, emerged as a metaphor for the times. Cambodia was the location of his emotional and political growth, clay, the site of his artistic reflections.
It offered him the refuge his country could not. It yielded lines and forms culled from his personal history; the precision of each line bringing order to the chaos in his life. Tan emerged from the ashes of a war-ravaged country to journey Westward. From Cambodia to Chicago, Khmer Art is today at home in the world.

Thirteen years ago, in a small, windowless room, an artist named Narath Tan sat alone, patiently etching the lines that would turn a large slab of wet clay into an object of beauty.