DeKALB – Northern Illinois University Art Museum’s Southeast Asian exhibition suite, “Current Views and Actions: Photography and Performance Documentation from Phnom Penh,” showcases contemporary work from young Cambodian artists Khvay Samnang and Lim Sokchanlina. This exhibition will be held in the museum’s Rotunda Gallery through Nov. 17.

Khvay and Lim are two of the founding members of the artist collective Stiev Selapak (Art Rebels) and are represented by SA SA BASSAC Gallery in Phnom Penh. Their photography and performance documentation poignantly showcase the societal challenges and unconventional beauty of contemporary Cambodia.

Khvay’s “Human Nature” series provides an intimate window into the lives and dwellings of tenants of the Bassac Riverfront Municipal Apartments, or “The White Building” in Phnom Penh. In Khvay’s startling portraits, his subjects’ faces are obscured by masks, allowing the nature of the portraits to unfold through the contents of the subjects’ living spaces.