SAO Sreymao was born in 1986 in a refugee camp on the Thai–Cambodian border. She graduated from Phare Ponleu Selpak’s School of Visual and Applied Arts in Battambang, Cambodia.

Sreymao’s multidisciplinary practice spans painting, photography, digital drawing, video, sculpture, and performance. Her work explores personal memory, and the shifting physical and psychological landscapes of Cambodian urban and rural life. Through intimate and materially sensitive approaches, she examines the traces of displacement, migration, labor, resilience, and everyday transformation within contemporary Cambodia. Often moving between autobiographical reflection and collective experience, her practice brings attention to overlooked gestures, emotional geographies, and forms of survival embedded in daily life.

Collaboration is an important aspect of her practice. She frequently works with writers and cultural practitioners on visual storytelling projects and contributes to publications. Her works engage with both local and international contexts, connecting personal narratives with broader conversations around identity, social change, and post-conflict memory.

Her work has been exhibited widely in Cambodia and internationally, including in Brazil, Germany, France, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, and the United States. Selected exhibitions include FotoFest Biennial, Houston, USA (2024); Jogja Biennale XVI Equator #6, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2021); and numerous exhibitions across Southeast Asia and beyond.

Recent solo exhibitions include The Breath-Through the Sea, Vila Sul Goethe-Institut, Salvador, Brazil (2025); Breathing Thread, Pteas Chas, Phnom Penh, Cambodia (2023); and Samput Sor, Silapak Trotchaek Pneik, Phnom Penh, Cambodia (2022).

She is co-founder of tiSamjort collective and Nomadix Art Tour, initiatives that support artistic exchange, community engagement, and expanded dialogues around contemporary art in Cambodia.