006

EXHIBITED
Primordial Dream, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore, 2005.

LITERATURE
Disclosure, Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, 2008, illustrated on page 246.

Part of Zakii’s art-residency body of work at Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Actor Three was done based on sketches of Mak Yong performers done deep in the jungles in Kelantan. It captures the dancers as “ordinary Joes” before their transformations into godly dance characters. This artwork displays great depth and detail through dense scribbles and crosshatching of lines. A man with sparse hair is shown with his right side profile. His notable features are a prominent beaked nose and chin and a large ear.

From a successful advertising background, Ahmad Zakii Anwar switched fulltime to fine art in the early 1990s and has become a master of Urban Realism. He graduated in Graphic Design at the Mara Institute of Technology in 1977. Known as being exciting, engaging and eloquent, he made a great impact with the Smokers series in his first solo in 1997. Zakii came to attention for his virtuosity and command of a spectrum of media from charcoals to oils, building a reputation for stunning photo realist still-life paintings and expressive portraits. His career milestones include when he was selected for the coveted Singapore Tyler Institute project in 2007 as well as his mid-career survey exhibition titled Disclosure at Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, in 2008. In recent years, he has had a number of notable exhibitions overseas such as Bones and Sinews, Andrewshire Gallery (USA, 2011), Kota Sunyi, CP ArtSpace (Indonesia, 2007), Shadowland, Plum Blossoms Gallery (Hong Kong, 2001), and Presence, Barbara Greene Fine Art (USA, 1999).