Malik

Malik, b.1960

Indonesia

Malik is an Indonesian-born artist best known for his highly detailed scenic pen and ink drawings on canvas. Malik’s artistic style was strongly influenced by his father, who was an amateur painter who loved to paint in black and white. To Malik, the use of black and white in paintings grew to represent the colours of expression. Inspired by his father, Malik began to create art as a hobby, and eventually started selling his paintings to his peers. 

Each ‘pen and ink’ takes on average six to eight months to complete depending on size of canvas, subject matter, and of course Malik’s spirit. Malik is visually blind in one eye, making each work a triumph of painstaking craftsmanship over personal difficulty. 

While most artists express themselves through a wide variety of colours, Malik has chosen to work with a pen in monochrome on a white background. Early in his career, he had worked predominantly in black ink because he saw black and white as the fundamental colours of all paintings. Over time, Malik began to work with green and brown inks. “Green because it has the colour of nature and has a healing power for the soul. Brown because it is the colour of many antiquities” explains Malik. 

The focus of Malik’s art is the beautiful scenery of rice fields, the temples, the people doing their everyday work, captured from curious angles made up by a myriad of dots and lines with incredibly fine detail. Malik's technique separates him from other artists. Their normal process is to start out with a pencil or pen and then continue with the actual paint. Instead, Malik begins with a pen and works his way to the final result, also with a pen. The resulting artwork is a beautifully intricate painting rich with an alluring depiction of his subject matter.