‘The Face’ - Victor Ekpuk is known worldwide having come to prominence through his paintings and drawings which are often tied in with traditional symbols and designs (types of ancient writing) he describes as forms of communication, saying: “I use my work to interpret situations wherever I find myself – the idea of writing/drawing just flows through me.” For The Face, he took an in-depth look at local culture, heritage and traditions. “Once I started to conceptualize, I had to research the culture and the people and I realized there are layers of tradition here that build the culture,” says Victor. “What was also interesting was the Dilmun culture and the writing systems because I am interested in ways of writing to express myself.“ I asked myself ‘how do I put this all in and capture the essence of these people who have come from all these traditions?’ I looked to the hijab and the Ghutrah; if you look at the work it’s about lines wrapping around the face. I chose the color because I saw that red was a very important color for Bahrain.” And it’s quite an achievement for an artist, who, despite being an accomplished painter, only produced his first commissioned sculpture earlier in 2019. In fact, Victor studied fine art and started out in advertising and drawing newspaper cartoons. His first commissioned work was a portrait, undertaken to make extra money while at college, and he has never looked back – though sometimes he is surprised by his own success. #victorekpuk, The Face, 2019 #art #artist #beautiful #photooftheday #photography #picoftheday #instagood (at Manama, Bahrain) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMjpgzJDf1K/?igshid=1tvnpu9rr0ccl
