Fez is known for its medieval Marinid architecture within its heavily-fortified medina and its quaint crowded souks that the villains in Hollywood spy thrillers often use to escape from the usually white Caucasian hero (like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 5). Lying in the north-eastern part of Morocco with the Atlas Mountain prominent, Fez, which means ‘pickaxe’, is dubbed the Athens of Africa with its Mediterranean climate. Summer, between June and September, is hot, while winter is cool and wet. Artist-photographer Rafiee Ghani is an Indiana Jones-typed intrepid traveller, driving across mountains and arid desserts in Asia and Africa, like on National Geographic assignment. Fez also boasts the world’s oldest university, Qarawiyyin. Morocco has some of the most elusive light and gorgeous colours that had inspired artists such as Matisse, and the preponderance of pink and orange hues in the abstract-scape, with filmy yellow washes suggests daybreak in a joyous summer. Rafiee Ghani won the Minor Award in the coveted Young Contemporary Artists (BMS) exhibition and the Minor Award in the 1991 Salon Malaysia. He was placed second in the Malaysian Art Open competition in 1994, and was among the five Juror’s Choice winners in the Malaysian-level Philip Morris Asean Art Awards. He studied at the De Vrije Academie Voor Bildeendie Kunst at the Hague, the Netherlands, but did not finish. He obtained his Diploma at the Mara Institute of Technology (1981-1985) and a Masters from the Manchester Metropolitan University (Manchester Polytechnic) in Britain in 1986-1987. After teaching at ITM for a few years, he taught in Mahe, Seychelles, in 1991-1993. His work, The Beginning Of The Red Sea (2016), sold for a personal record of HK$325,000 in Sotheby’s Hong Kong April 2017 sale. In the same auction in April 2018, another piece fetched more than HK$200,000.