In The World, as I See It, Albert Einstein said, “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.” Art holds different meanings to different people. Marcel Duchamp defines art as “You cannot define electricity. The same can be said of art. It is a kind of inner current in a human being or something which needs no definition.” Keeping this in mind, we can say that art can be anything.
It is subjective to people; it can be a piece of writing by your favourite author, a little kid’s dance performance, or music by famous artists. When we are subjected to such pieces of art, they invoke emotions in us. We find the meaning of interpretation in the artist’s brilliant piece of work—Mr. Zulfi Alarakhia’s attempts to capture a whole ensemble of emotion with each of his portraits.
Mr. Alarakhia is a contemporary self-taught portraiture artist who lives in the UK. Until seven years ago, Mr. Alarakhia had not created anything, then he saw some art on a friend’s social media page, and something clicked inside him, which reminded him of his love for creating. In the summer of 2013, he started creating small space paintings with spray paints, slowly moving to draw portraits, and he has not stopped since then.
The pandemic had a stimulating effect everywhere. Mr. Alarakhia got redundant in his 9-5 in the summer and decided to create art as a full[1]time artist. “I said to myself if I don’t do this now, when will I,” says Mr. Alarakhia. Since then, he has made portraits for people worldwide and is very proud of the work he does. As the artist explains, “The fact that people across the Globe contact me to create for them, that is so special, and I am super proud of that.”
He idolizes Rembrandt van Rijn, who was one of the most critical and well-known Dutch Baroque artists. Rembrandt van Rijn conquered the market with his portraits and made a place for himself in this genre. Mr. Alarakhia draws insights and encouragement from his pieces. Although the artist’s biggest inspiration is his mother, “She is such a strong human being!” told Mr. Alarakhia. His advice for the young artist is, “Don’t worry about what other Artists are doing, just be the best you can be. Always compete with yourself.”
His Instagram handles @iamzulf is engulfed in dynamic and exciting portraits curated for people across the globe. Recent pictures of Instagram show that Mr. Alarakhia is also making beautiful portraits of pets, a testimony to his skills and talent. Over the years, he has adapted and developed his own distinctive personal sense of style to suit his needs. Through his portraits, he expresses his perspective on beauty and emanates joy and grace and yet captures distinct, powerful, and compelling stories through his harmonious compositions.