I Never Sleep Without Meditation

Phyoe Kyi is a formally trained painter, graphic designer, and self-taught installation and performance artist. Variety exists both in the materials he uses to make his art, and the concepts and experiences used to shape those materials. Growing up in Taunggyi, Shan State in Eastern Myanmar, he showed exceptional competence in primary and secondary school. His mother, widowed early in his childhood, was proud and pushed him to succeed. It was for this reason she was disappointed when he chose to study art at the University of Arts and Culture in Yangon. She could not predict his success as an internationally recognized Myanmar contemporary artist.

Phyoe Kyi works in and outside the studio, creating dialogues on existing social systems and critiques on human nature. Some of his video and photography works deal with the effects of idleness on youth, Cyclone Nargis and concerns on Myanmar's changing environment. Some of his most recent works comments directly on Myanmar's lack of art institutional support. But perhaps more dear to his heart is his personal trials, growing up an only child of a single mother, struggling to adopt his own personal ideology rather than adapt to that which was prescribed to him. From painting to installation, video to design, screen printing to sound - he explores these themes and more, exhibiting his collections in Fukuoka, Dhaka, Berlin, Bangkok and all over Myanmar.

He comes from a generation of artists determined to experiment. Through his work, we can observe not only an evolving visual solution through personal growth, but also a the changing landscape of an artist, a town, and a country.