HAZEM AKIL - BIOGRAPHY:
Painting, Prints
Hazem Akil is a Syrian artist born in Aleppo, Syria. From an early age he demonstrated an innate artistic talent and continued to bring his creative passion to fruition. He held his first solo exhibition in 1984. He moved to Lebanon in 2012, where he currently resides.
Akil is known for his abounding in symbols, which sometimes suggests an accumulation that confuses the regularity of the painting, thus confusing its internal movement contributing to his unique style.
We might find in the paintings of Hazem Akil an objective link, or a common denominator, but he works in a variety of ways on his paintings, sometimes even diverging. The common denominator in Akil’s work is its use of the eastern culture coding vocabulary, that is, its interest in highlighting the civilizational history of the region, especially those that are repeated in the Syrian heritage architecture. The artist carries to his painting passages, excerpts, or perhaps geometric shapes that he saw while wandering between the excavations of his country and his castles, without being led to a painting or architecture or turning the area of the painting into an engineering theater. Even the decoration that he conveys to us does not remain in its disciplined logic, but rather is organized in a constructive movement in which the artist maintains a great deal of freedom and spontaneity.
He has more than 30 individual and many joint exhibitions in many Arab and foreign countries, including but not limited to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Russia and the United States (Pennsylvania and Ohio). His works are acquired in the National Museum of Damascus, the National Museum of Aleppo and private collections in many countries.