Vatey, born in Phnom Penh in 1992, is an interdisciplinary artist and designer who works with playful and poetic curiosity. She creates art installations, abstract paintings, sculptures and creative book designs, drawing inspiration from her life experiences and what surrounds her.
Her work has been presented in solo shows and group exhibitions, art fairs and festivals in Cambodia and internationally. In 2003, at just 11 years old, Vatey received the Foreign Minister's Award at Japan's 33rd International Children's Art Exhibition and was the 3rd runner-up in Thailand's Art on AIDS Competition in 2013. In 2024, Vatey teamed up with Dahlia Phirun for a duo exhibition of 73 pieces with 3 co-created paintings and they opened this unique show with a live painting on a cake as canvas as another experimentation of "consensual art": Usually people cannot touch the artworks but here people can taste it and become part of the artwork they smuggle out of the galleries in their bellies. Shifting sense and relationalities, changing art conventions.
The year 2017 marked a turning point for her through the "Mutual Unknown" project, initiated by the Goethe Institute with an experimental exhibition at National Gallery of Indonesia, where she met Sinta Wibowo. Together, they initiated the series [re-enacting memories] with iterations at the Europalia Festival in Brussels, Museum MACAN in Jakarta, Sa Sa Art Projects in Phnom Penh and [watch & wa/onder] a series of walkshops in Indonesia, China, Japan and Cambodia.
Vatey has participated in numerous artist residencies, including Sa Sa Bassac, Vermont Studio Center (US), Newfoundland (Belgium) and Washi Plus (Japan). She has been part of panel and artist talks at Asia Society, Asian Cultural Council in New York, OCAC in Taipei and Largo Curation Center in Takamatsu. In 2023, she was invited to create a solo exhibition [continuity] for Cambodian Living Arts' 25th anniversary with her artworks as part of their permanent collection. Vatey was also one of the facilitators of Perspectives from the Grassroots at Mekong Cultural Hub's Meeting Point in Hanoi, as well as for Youth Learning Camp of Door to Asia. In 2020, Vatey co-initiated tiSamjort art space in Phnom Penh and continues to play a vital role in a variety of creative projects.