Hakim Alakel is drawing attention
Yemeni artist Hakim Alakel attained a master’s degree in fine arts at Moscow University in the 1980s. And even if he was well known for his allegorical landscape and figurative paintings, his job as an adviser in the Ministry of Culture has kept him busy and far from his first love — painting.
Hakim Alakel
Hakim Alakel.
Untitled, 2012
Acrylic on canvas
150 x 80 cm
When the Arab spring revolution put the cultural events in his country on hold, he moved temporarily to Jordan. It was then that he finally discovered a creative spring so deep that it never ceased to challenge, inspire, and satisfy him — it brought about his return and the beginning of his intense dedication to painting. And his comeback as a painter was not in vain. In 2012, in a solo exhibition in Jordan, Hakim Alakel made a powerful entrance into the arena of figure painting.
The people of Bahrain had the pleasure to view his paintings last March in his first solo exhibition at the Bahrain Art Centre attended by Bahraini artist and art patron Rashid Al Khalifa and Bahrain’s Minister of Culture, HE Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa. Exhibiting thirty-seven works of mostly heroically scaled figurative paintings in a considerable range of insightful portraits and themes of social relevance. Torn between the Formal and Narrative merged with idiosyncratic elements of the Yemini culture, what developed amidst his work is magical and rewarding.
In these luminous paintings, Hakim incorporates unusual, space-altering perspectives and uses complex color combinations to create razzle-dazzle effects through layering, and expressive details speaking to the process of the painting’s order from a multiplicity of stimuli. His form is so beautiful that in all planes, color reverberates like a note in a wonderful song. Pensive individuals are seen in as if desiring intimacy but weighed down by apparent uncertainty and alienation. Almost always – his protagonist’s full-fledged sentimentality and otherworldly luminescence is perhaps the most striking hallmark. Nevertheless these beautiful works of art highlight the relevance and importance of unity and order in contemporary life.
Hakim Alakel
Untitled, 2012
Acrylic on canvas
100 x 140 cm
Today, Hakim Alakel is drawing attention as the new important figure painter in the Middle East to watch. His success rests in his unequivocal commitment to Representational art as a quest for meaning and understanding rather than as a stylistic choice. ab
Hakim Alakel with Rashid Al Khalifa
To view some of Hakim’s paintings click here artbahrain online gallery
Page Views: 2111
