Sami Akl

Lebanese/Brazilian multi media artist Sami Akl was born in 1959 and was raised in San Paulo's 'Bras' neighborhood, immigrant stronghold of the city. The first child of four brothers, he is a son of the orient and the occident. He started to develop his own art as early as aged five years old in his family's fabrics store, creating kites with bamboo wood and wrapping paper, amid the chaos of the customers!

Over the years, his studies and experiences added to his art. He graduated in Architecture and was recognized as an innovator– designing not only buildings, but also their interiors and furniture which led to multiple contracts across South America. As a result of his travels, the people he met - and his attentive observations - he began forming his original artistic language.

Today, following in the footsteps of major Pop Artists like Warhol, Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns; Sami Akl's distinctively intriguing portraits have their own voice. His contemporary mastery brings to his work a stylish, emotive force that is inescapably modern– yet, at the same time, as timeless as the icons themselves. His technique of expanding printed paper over the canvas –deliberately making creases– gives an unmistakable texture and character to the paintings and creates the desire to look beneath the subject matter's surface.

Akl is the complete artist. The variety of his work speaks for itself. His paintings, sculpture and installations have been seen around the world and take his spirit of innovation and incantation beyond the heights of his old kites' flights.