This portfolio of six works focuses on the face of a man in a round-collar white t-shirt, from various angles including full frontal gazing straight at viewer. Each clip has different interventions such as words ‘printed’ in orderly lines, cursive or in regimented coloured uppercase texts, and with smudges of paints. There is play of light, with obfuscations of image and layerings, and highlights such as around the ear shape. It’s a deeply psychological ‘portrait,’ serious at once, and contemplative too, with obviously darker nuances, typical of Ahmad Zakii’s innate brand of dark Urban Realism often juxtaposing with something of the traditional. Ahmad Zakii composes works that delve into the darker fringes of society and one’s inner psyche and the mystical aura. He has created his own brand of New Urban Realism of Figures, and is also adept at creating layers of meaning in his still-life, interiors and large animal depictions. A graduate in Graphic Design from the Mara Institute of Technology in 1977, he gave up a lucrative career in Advertising to become a fulltime painter and was an instant hit with his Smokers Series in 1997. His solo, Disclosure, at Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, in 2008, established him as a major figurative artist. His notable foreign solos include Presence (New York, 1999); Shadowland (Hong Kong, 2001); Sublimal (The Philippines and also Thailand, 2006); Batik Art (South Korea, 2013); in Indonesia – Borobudur, Amanjiwa, Arangbali (2004), Kota Sunyi (2007), Nafsu (2010); and in Singapore – Paintings Drawings and Prints 1991-2007 (Singapore Tyler, 2007), Bones & Sinews (2011), Being (2009), Primordial Dream (2005) and Distant Gamelan (1981). His Kuala Lumpur solos include Kota Sepi (VWFA, 2012), Interpreter Of Desires (Taksu, 2003) and Icons (RKFA, 2005).