PHIL AKASHI (BELGIUM - بلجيكا)
PAINTING
Phil Akashi (Brussels, 1978) is a nomadic artist known for his conceptual and cross-cultural experiments with language, materiality and aesthetics.
As a vibrant player in the East/West dialogue, Phil Akashi employs a wide range of media to explore and challenge themes of democracy, power, resistance, and cultural identity. His narratives are critics, sometimes anti-establishment, confrontational, and, at the same time, peaceful and meditative.
Also known as an Alchemist of language, Phil Akashi carved out a unique visual language often combining the use of traditional crafts with techniques of abstract expressionism and street art movements. Akashi’s influences range from pioneering Asian artists such as Xu Bing, Park Seo-Bo, to Western artists such as Christopher Wool, Cy Twombly, and also from the myriad of cultural inspirations of his nomadic lifestyle.
Phil Akashi recently exhibited at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) alongside Ai Weiwei, Jenny Holzer, and Fung Ming Chip, at the Arsenale in Venice, and at the Power Station of Art (PSA) in Shanghai. His artworks are in royal families and in private collections worldwide and have been featured in international publications such as the Guggenheim, MoMA, Artribune, Fine Art International, Rolling Stone, Juxtapoz, and Blouin Artinfo.
Transgression
Phil Akashi's work investigates questions relating to the act of transgression as a powerful tool that allows the liberation of the creative energies. The artist incorporates multiple layers of languages* from East and West and uses light as a manifestation of spiritual energy. The compositions of Arabic, Chinese, and English characters and hues of the artwork are revealed in the presence of ultraviolet light. By doing so, he engages his audience with a reflection on unlimited tolerance, open-mindedness, and positive reasoning. Between visible and invisible, between light and shadow, a new, expanded idea of calligraphy takes shape.
Installation view, Transgression series, Phil Akashi - Museum of Modern Art of Algiers (MAMA) 2019. Untitled, Hong Kong, 2019. Ink and fluorescent spray paint on canvas, ultraviolet light. 160 x 240 cm (2 parts of 80 x 240 cm)
*According to Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, Persian poet and Sufi master, when one recognizes the signs of creation by observing and thinking about it, one sees creation as an expression of divine power, thus reaches the love of God. The further we move away from the true center of the religious faith, the more differences and controversies emerge. "We are not going East and West, but rather we are constantly traveling to the Sun," Rumi says. Confucius said: 不患人之不己知，患不知人也 /"I will not be afflicted at men's not knowing me; I will be afflicted that I do not know men." According to the Master, by getting to know others around us, we will be able to improve ourselves. Without others, we are unable to learn about our own self.
