For the past few months, Asif Hakh has been welcoming tourists and art lovers back to his home to share his work and to share a drink. An opportunity to discover or rediscover this artist who has been painting St Martin for 20 years.
Asif Hakh was born in the countryside of British Guyana, South America. Even if he grew up in the city, the beach was his favorite playground when he was visiting his grandparents.
Attracted by Visual Arts since an early age, he started painting regularly when he was a teenager. “I am self-taught, at first my practice was mostly trial and errors”, he remembers. Inspired by the nature around him, the young man quickly found his favorite subject in figurative painting: the landscapes. As an adult, he worked in many fields alongside members of his family – travel agency, textile – while continuing to paint. In 2002, when he had just got married, he felt the need to breathe a different kind of air. He then moved with his wife to St Martin, where his brother was already living.
This is when he discovered pastels, a technic in which he found his artistic identity. His career as an artist truly began when he met the sculptor Martin Lynn, to whom we owe the statue on the Marigot waterfront. The American artist offered him to exhibit his art work in his gallery in Grand Case, Lynn’s Gallery, which Asif finally took over a few years later. But the condition of the old building was deteriorating, forcing the artist to move across the street, where he managed The Gallery from 2006 to 2010. In parallel, he exhibited his work in many hotels such as the Sapphire, the Grand Case Beach Club or Oyster Bay Beach Resort. His colorful paintings depicting neighborhoods and iconic places of the island attract tourists as well as locals who all find in them “something to identify with. I have never wanted to paint sad things, I want to share the joy of the island”, Asif Hakh points out. Inspired by the Caribbean turquoise hues, the artist particularly likes to "capture light and shadows". Since 2006, he has been making “hammocks” made of braided ropes that he glues on his canvas of white sand and turquoise sea. A concept he has been developing over the years and which is today one of his specificities.
MEETING THE PUBLIC
Before Hurricane Irma, Asif Hakh used to welcome passers-by and prying eyes in his apartment in Grand Case for friendly evenings around art. Very recently, the artist has resumed these “art nights” which will take place again on Friday evening from mid-October. He will welcome you to the place of his creativity with tapas and drinks and invite you to spend a few minutes or hours in his company to discover his work in a friendly atmosphere. And for those who wish to pack a little of the art of St Martin in their suitcase, he is selling some of his multiple canvases, but also more than 200 reproductions for a small price.
Art Nights at Asif's
Every Friday night from mid-October, from 5pm to 9pm
147/9 Boulevard de Grand Case
Information on Facebook @Asif’s Residence
+590 690 22 90 01
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