Ahmad Zakii Anwar trained as a graphic designer at Mara Institute of Technology and spent his early career in advertising before turning to painting. His technique is photo-realist, and his reputation rests on still lifes and solitary figures painted with a stillness he traces to his reading in Sufism and Plato. He is one of the most influential figurative artists in Malaysia. Sementara: Ahmad Zakii Anwar from the Steve Wong Art Collection is currently running at GDP Campus, Level 4. A Must-Visit! This 1997 diptych dates from the years when Zakii was establishing himself as a painter of people. A man in black sits across a red sofa, one leg crossed, looking to the side. The picture is held in two colours, the red of the long sofa in room and the black of the clothes, with the face and hands the only warmer passages. It is the format Zakii would use again in his large charcoal figures of the 2000s: one person, a plain setting, no narrative.