'Everything Will Be OK' by Ernest Zacharevic, 2022
From the artist's sold out solo show at REXKL, Kuala Lumpur.
Poster variant A.
29 x 24.2 Inches
74 x 61.5 Centimeters
Archival pigment print on 190gsm Glossy Photo art paper.
Open Edition (Sold Out).
Hand-signed by the artist in black marker bottom right.
Title printed bottom left.
ABOUT THE ART
Ernest Zacharevic found time and space to paint freely amid the anxiety of the last two years. His show 'Everything Will Be OK' at REXKL is a huge work featuring compositions of children in primary colours on assembled canvases.
The lockdowns that weighed heavily on many during the pandemic gave Ernest Zacharevic the luxury of time and unfettered creativity. Confined to his studio-cum-home in Penang, the multidisciplinary artist known for his street murals felt free to create art for art’s sake.
The result is Everything Will Be OK — a huge work featuring compositions of children in primary colours on assembled canvases — that is specific and personal to him in different ways.
“What makes it personal is the fact that I didn’t do it for anyone or anything else,” says Zacharevic, looking back on the last two years. “I wasn’t looking to satisfy a client or fit a theme or to commercially monetise it. I really did not stop myself from building this piece. Sometimes, when painting, you think a work is a little too big or maybe you don’t have time for it. This one had no limits. I really enjoyed the process.”
The work captures children at play against white backgrounds and within grids of black lines, separated by blocks of red, blue and yellow — a reference to Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, who used colours, shapes and textures to achieve their effect. There are patches of burnt canvas and a sculpture of a figure with a fire extinguisher, added recently, standing before the whole work.
The young figures on the canvas are based mostly on family members and the children of friends, young ’uns whom Zacharevic has used in different projects and watched grow over the years.