“Do You Really Want To Hurt Me” Solo Exhibition by Sam Sopheak
5 June – 5 July 2026 at Pteah Chas
Exhibition Statement
Created during a month-long residency with Sâmleng, Do You Really Want To Hurt Me is Sopheak Sam’s first solo exhibition in Cambodia. Through paintings, textiles, and video installations, the exhibition transforms the gallery into an immersive space exploring architecture, landscape, and human connection.
Borrowing its title from the 1982 song by Culture Club and queer icon Boy George, the exhibition reflects on the relationship between desire, vulnerability, pleasure, and pain.
Recurring serpent imagery appears throughout the works as symbols of water, transformation, and protection within Cambodian cosmology. Inspired by art historian Boreth Ly’s idea of “poison cure,” the exhibition explores how pain and healing can coexist. Snakes shedding skin become metaphors for survival, renewal, and change.
Through motifs of gates, barriers, and fragmented spaces, the installation reflects on longing, solitude, and the fragile tension between distance and intimacy.
Artist Biography
Sopheak Sam (b. Khao-I-Dang, Thai-Cambodia border) is a Khmer American artist and researcher based in Boston. Their large-scale mixed media installations explore refugee histories, memory, intimacy, and diaspora.
Sam has received awards including the Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant (2026), Artadia Award (2025), and the U.S. Fulbright Research Fellowship (2022–23). Their work has been exhibited across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Southeast Asia.
Raised in Lowell as one of nine children born to Cambodian refugees, Sam earned an MFA from Cornell University and was affiliated with the Southeast Asia Program (SEAP).
