NEW YORK, NY.- Sapar Contemporary is presenting Lust for Life, an exhibition by the contemporary Malaysian master, Ahmad Zakii Anwar. This body of work hinges on two series of figures and still lifes -- art historical forms that are both classical and universal, but re-conceived critically and defiantly with innovations that are personal to Zakii’s practice. This exhibition, Lust for Life, centers on a group of his finely detailed individual charcoal male nudes abstracted from any background, and fruits and vegetables set in relation to each other on emptied tables.
Working initially from live figures, but then from images of those models in his studio, Zakii draws sinewed, singular male nudes, partially disembodying them as thighs dissolve into backgrounds and headless figures float in space. (When heads do appear, faces are turned away from the viewer, retaining a certain abstraction and anonymity.) While referencing live figures — and seen by Zakii as autobiographical, these nudes appear statuesque and stilled.
Zakii’s fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, adhere to art historical conventions of still-life or nature morte, but appear animated and held in a state of living suspense as some even seem ready to dance together. These paintings are about relationships, about the tension of two opposing and distinct bodies coming together. In this way, unexpectedly perhaps, these works take on a sensual, even sexualized, charge that the nudes resist, in part through the phallic impression of certain elements.
A leading artist in Malaysia, revered by younger generations, Zakii has quietly subverted forms and conventions of the country’s art scene, which has largely favored abstraction in the context of painting.
Ahmad Zakii Anwar (b. 1955, Johor Bahru, Malaysia), also known as Zakii, is one of the best known artists in Malaysia. His art is lauded for capturing not only city motifs but also the distinctive psychological dimensions and cinematic quality of these settings. Zakii’s preoccupation with the spiritual or metaphysical aspects of urban life is revealed through his use of icons, symbols and allegories. Metaphors of theatre, performance, and masks have also marked his practice. All of Zakii’s work, from his Michelangelesque male nudes to his photorealistic animals and sensual fruits are steeped in contemplative silence drawn from his research in both Platonic simulacra and Sufi mysticism. Zakii’s large-scale charcoal drawings of male nudes, evoking in two-dimensions a visceral reality reminiscent of Michelangelo’s slave sculptures, combine his theological, psychological and cosmological inquiries of the human spirit and body.
Zakii holds a degree from the School of Art and Design, MARA Institute of Technology Malaysia. He is an important figure of the Malaysian and South East Asian art scene, where he exhibits in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila. Internationally, Zakii has exhibited in New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Seoul, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. His artwork can be found in many institutional collections including National Art Gallery Kuala Lumpur, Bank Negara Malaysia, Khazanah Nasianal Berhad, Singapore Art Museum, National University of Singapore Museum and Long Museum Shanghai among others. The artist also maintains an activist practice supporting AIDS patients, women’s rights and his local community.
Beth Citron is the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Rubin Museum of Art. Her exhibitions for the Rubin Museum have included A Lost Future: Shezad Dawood / The Otolith Group / Matti Braun (2018), Chitra Ganesh (2018), Henri Cartier-Bresson: India in Full Frame (2017), Genesis Breyer P-Orridge: Try to Altar Everything (2016), Francesco Clemente: Inspired by India (2014), Witness at a Crossroads: Photographer Marc Riboud in Asia (2014), and the three-part exhibition series Modernist Art from India (2011–13). She completed a PhD in the history of art at the University of Pennsylvania in 2009, where her dissertation focused on art in Bombay from 1965-1995. Her research has been supported by Fulbright and FLAS fellowships. She has taught in the Art History Department at New York University, from which she also earned a BA in fine arts.
