Description
In The Greatest, Fawwaz Sukri interpreted the most anticipated sports event of all time, depicting the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier world heavyweight championship fight at Madison Square Garden, New York City on March 8, 1971. Colourizing it in Pop tones, with dynamic text, and adding a surreal quality, it serves as a metaphor of valour and struggles. The flamboyant Ali is shown dominant, towering over the shorter Frazier, ducking his right hook, though it was Frazier who eventually won in 15 rounds, on unanimous decision, in this match dubbed 'The Fight of the Century'. Ali, making a comeback after an exile for dodging conscription to the Vietnam War, looked in decline, but proved his critics wrong when he beat Frazier in their second and last rematch in Manila, the Philippines, apart from felling George Foreman in Zaire. In life, fighting spirit is important. Fawwaz graduated with a degree in Fine Art, majoring in Painting, in 2008-2010, at the University Mara Institute of Technology. His diploma was at the UiTM Alor Gajah campus (2005-2008). Both times, in 2008 and 2010, he won the Vice-Chancellor's Award. He held his first solo, Saturday's Matinee, at the Pace Gallery (now Nadine Fine Art) in Petaling Jaya in 2014 and held a two-man show called Narration with Bambang Toko Witjaksono at the same gallery in 2016. In 2018, Fawwaz won the Art against AIDS Award for the Annual Professional Artist art competition hosted by ONE (Juror's Award), Malaysia, and the Young Guns Award organised by HOM Art Trans, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2017. His solo exhibition Life Is Wonderful was organised by Nadine Fine Art in 2019.