LOT 70
Nik Rafin
B. Selangor, 1974
Mindscape Series 10, 2011
Signed and dated “Rafin 911”
on lower right
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 39.8 cm
Provenance Private Collection, Kuala Lumpur
RM 800 – RM 1,200
Like many other artists, Nik Rafin is certainly a man of many talents. Unlike some artists, he is extraordinarily-skilled as an artist and as a photographer as well, combining the two talents that he has in his disposal with aplomb. As a result, armed with a recipe consisting of talent, perseverance and hard work, Nik Rafin is now one of the more renowned names that are held in high esteem within and outside the art scene.
Born in 1974 in Petaling Jaya, Nik Rafin has always had a love of the arts since he was a young boy. He once worked as an illustrator for Milwaukee newspaper The Marquette Tribune before being offered a job that other people would kill for, a seven-year contract by Walt Disney as a graphic designer and illustrator. He turned it down due to his dad’s insistence that he was to go back to his home country and contribute something to Malaysia.
When before he was painting and sketching in black and white from the photos that he would take by himself, now he was filled with vim and vigor, a phase which led him to see the world in a more colorful vantage point. His paintings are a reflection of the scenes and subjects that he captures through his camera lens, reinterpreted and reproduced in painting form with added emotions. Some of the subjects of his works include wildlife and sceneries, with some done in sketches and some done in watercolour. Nik Rafin has also produced abstract paintings with his Escape series, a personal interpretation of how a person feels when escaping from negative emotions.