Today we’d like to introduce you to Keyan Ghafar.
Hi Keyan, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My life as an artist began in 1997 when taking classes in college and flourished from there with constant practice. I had dropped painting for about a 7-year period and didn’t pick it back up until 2009 when at that time a vast amount of work was being produced from then through today. Since the time I began, I have participated in international shows, donated works to the Vatican and other Roman Catholic Churches in Rome and Florence, and am represented by a gallery in Venice. For the most part, I did not expect any of this as the doors sort of blew wide open for me. Perhaps I was very lucky, to say the least.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely has not been a smooth ride. The art market is very fickle and there is a constant battle within of trying to be in its business-wise or being an artist for the sake of art. Unfortunately, there is not a one size fits all box you can place art and the art collectors in, so you truly do have to live to love the sport of creating work. It’s constant experimentation with the limited resources available to an artist, all the way from pencils, pastels, and to oil paints.
How much can you really do and what makes the work unique is always at the forefront of my mind when I am producing. It’s that constant mental battle that goes on that is more exhausting than the work itself, but when you realize to exhale, take a step back and come back to it, then that’s when the best work is produced.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work comes from two different places, it’s either an attempt in producing something classical and operatic as a masterpiece or intermittent expressions of abstract depending on what is going on in the world in which we live and how we react.
My current occupation with my work is experimenting with the topic of structuralism in combining thoughts, speech, emotion, and perspective in one image. There are a handful of works that represents this objective from contemporary to abstract expressionism. This by far has been the most rewarding part of the process. Alongside that philosophical thought, I have been working on creating a “pure” painting that removes art as the object and makes the work just for the sake of the work itself. It has been a mental exercise in removing the goal of creating an aesthetically pleasing painting to simply creating a painting on the merits of what the individual materials are composed of.
What I would say I’m known for, is constant experimentation and not being afraid of a good challenge. I take them day by day and reflect what I did with the work the day before. Before I begin another session in the current day. It really helps to keep me and the viewer in the moment.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
When people see me or if I introduce myself as an artist, little do they know, that I also am an accountant for a Data Storage company here locally in Dallas.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.keyanart.com
