Discussion with Lim Khim Katy

Lim Khim Katy chooses La Lanta Fine Art to debut her solo exhibition outside of Vietnam. Like her personality, her works can be described as serene and composed yet emotionally powerful and engaging. Most of her artworks are about people, people of her country, whose life hasn’t necessarily been easy.

The young soft spoken Cambodian-Vietnamese artist is based in Ho Chi Minh City where she works and finds her inspiration. In Vietnam, she only selects to exhibit with only few galleries. Her first exhibition in Hanoi received an overwhelming success. It put Lim Khim Katy’s name on the map overnight. Some of her works had joined the league of highly recognized Vietnamese artists in the Larasati regional art auctions this year.

Inspiration of her works predominantly comes from her life experience and her interaction with people. “I once talked to a man who sit by the window all day. He said he missed his son who left town to work in the city. I could see pain in his eyes. I feel so sad,” Katy recalled some of her experiences. “When I came back to the studio, I started to paint a piece about this old man. I remembered his face clearly. His sorrow affected me.”

Katy’s art primarily involves a sense of hardship, striving middle class, and misery caused by poverty. This may sound quite depressing but Katy does not let the grief swallow her works. She gracefully introduces the hint of sorrow through the eyes. To her, the eyes are gateway to the soul. With facial expression effectively makes the point, she does not need to elaborate her works with too much detail. She would rather let the texture, colors, brush strokes, or even empty space do all the talking.

In this exhibition “Symphony of Thoughts,” she plans to show total of 21 paintings of her new collection. “The sun is very strong in Vietnam . The heat is almost unbearable when we stand under the sun. For many people, they have no choice. They have to stand under the sun to make a living. I know it well because I used to do the same work.”

Katy continues, “The more they work the poorer they get. There is no way out.” She pauses. “I feel so much sympathy for them but there is nothing I can do.”

"Symphony of Thoughts” talks about life of people in this generation – the Vietnamese working class of the 21 st century. Katy also paints landscape and livelihood of middle class scene. Her paintings embrace today’s life challenge, social influences, and people of her experiences.