Kannetha (កន្និថា) Brown is a Khmer Kat (half) American artist working between Providence, Rhode Island and Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Reaching towards a lineage and ancestral land she carries within, her lens-based multimedia work explores Cambodian memory through family, community, and landscape. As the daughter of a survivor of the Khmer Rouge Genocide, she navigates the space where historical rupture meets intergenerational way-finding. Her work was catalyzed by a surveillance photograph of her maternal aunt taken by a Khmer Rouge official, an image that redefined the camera as both a tool of violence and a vessel for remembrance.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and featured in The New York Times and Rolling Stone. A recipient of support from the Artist Community Alliance, the Interlace Grant Fund, and the Rhode Island Foundation, she holds a BFA in Photography with honors from MassArt.
Biography
Awards
2025 — Macoll Johnson Fellowship Finalist
2025 — RISCA Make Art Grant
2025 — Booooooom Photo Awards Longlist
2025 — RI Foundation Demers Fellowship (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
2024 — Mayoral Citizen Citation
2024 — Interlace Grant
2023 — MassArt Godine Fellowship (New York, USA)
2022 — Women Photograph Grant Shortlist
Solo & Two Person Exhibitions
2024 — Yeay/Yai: an ode to grandmothers, City Hall (Providence, USA)
2023 — Two Oceans, AS220 (Providence, USA)
Group Exhibitions
2025 — My Grandmother is an Altar, Lesley University (Boston, USA)
2025 — Idioms of Distress, AS220 (Providence, USA)
2025 — Big Camera Show, University of Iowa (Iowa City, USA)
2024 — When I Get Home, WaterFire Arts Center (Providence, USA)
2023 — FujiFilm Biennial, Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, USA)
2023 — Pictures and Progress, MassArt (Boston, USA)
Public Art
2022 — Who We Are Now, Installation and Grant (Providence, USA)
Residencies
2027 — Hyde Park Arts Center (Chicago, USA)
2023 — WaterFire Arts Center (Providence, USA)
Collections
Providence Department of Art, Culture, Tourism (Providence, USA)
MassArt Office of Justice, Equity, & Transformation (Boston, USA)
Lectures & Talks
2026 — Brown University (Providence, USA)
2026 — MassArt (Boston, USA)
2025 — Canadian International School (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
2025 — Lesley University (Boston, USA)
2025 — RISD Continuing Education (Providence, USA)
2025 — Leica Store & Gallery (Boston, USA)
2024 — Bryant University (Lincoln, USA)
Curriculum Vitae (Selected)