French-Italian artist Romain Garzonio, known as ROMA, presents his debut solo exhibition, Subconscious Square Roots, in Phnom Penh. Supplied
A profound journey into memory, emotion and the subconscious is unfolding this week, as French-Italian artist Romain Garzonio, known as ROMA, presents his debut solo exhibition, Subconscious Square Roots, in Phnom Penh.
The show opened on April 20 and runs through June 30, on Level 35 at the Rosewood Phnom Penh.
The exhibition transforms the gallery into a dreamlike realm of personal reflection and timeless emotion.
“Visitors are invited into ROMA’s inner world through a collection of 38 evocative works — including 27 paintings, 5 sculptures, 3 photographs and 3 drawings — each created instinctively and layered with meaning,” according to the organisers.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is ROMA’s series of abstract “time capsules” — sculptural works that encase everyday objects in plaster and resin, preserving fragments of ordinary life as sacred relics.
These pieces, with their muted tones and weathered textures, conjure a sense of suspended time, as though the subconscious has frozen a memory just before it fades.
“My art isn’t about beauty in the conventional sense,” ROMA explains.
“It’s about essence, about preserving the emotional imprint of an experience, a place, a feeling. These works are fragments of my subconscious, and I hope they stir reflection in others,” he continues.
Born in Montpellier, France to Italian parents, ROMA originally trained as a plaster craftsman before redirecting his skills toward fine art.
His artistic vocabulary — rooted in touch, memory and time — began to take shape after moving to Rome at 25, where the city's rich classical heritage left a deep mark on his creative outlook.
Having lived in Cambodia for the past seven years, ROMA has found in Phnom Penh both solitude and inspiration.
“Solitude untangles emotions,” he says.
“It’s in that silence that I can understand myself — and that’s where the work comes from,” he adds.
The exhibition also marks the beginning of ROMA’s global tour, with future stops in Spain and France.
It offers a rare glimpse into an artist who bridges old-world craftsmanship with contemporary introspection — a practice that invites viewers to dwell not only on the objects in front of them, but also on the intangible echoes they leave behind.
Subconscious Square Roots is open to the public until June 30, offering a meditative escape and a striking testament to the power of art to preserve what words cannot say.
