046

EXHIBITED
Kota Sunyi, C.P. Art Space, Jakarta, Indonesia, 2007.

A nattily dressed man, back turned to viewer and with hands clasped behind his back, seems deep in thought in a dark alley in front of a building with the louvered windows on the top floor opened. What is he doing roaming the streets at this hour of the morning? The artist is fascinated by such wandering transients especially in the seedier areas around Jalan Meldrum in Johor Bharu. He has created a suit of film noir psycho-dramas that are sinister and full of mystery. Zakii had reprised the disturbing and stark realism of this in a sequel called Kota Sepi in a dedicated exhibition in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year.

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).