Biography
[A]Ad Achkar is [one or many] free spirit living in [dis]organized chaos.
Multidisciplinary artist, born in 1988 and raised in Lebanon, Ad Achkar developed his vision through his life experiences –
his philosophy of life and death.
After graduating BA in photography [USEK Kaslik, Lebanon] in 2009 and MA in design and Media Spaces [UE Berlin, Germany] in 2017, Ad indulged in the use of various media and materials ranging from photography and installations to collages and media art.
In addition, he began collecting old photographs and prints, stamps and artifacts, and subsequently transposed original 1947 “Al Sayyad” newspaper into a collage artwork [ISIS1947], creating political and protest art, opportunities for dissent that nevertheless arouse social consciousness and emotions.
In search for his “eudaemony” and the meaning of life, by questioning the “essence of things” and experimenting with his environment and body, series of timeless self-portraits come into being – revealing daring and dynamic “identities” that deal with topics of sexuality and adultery, gender and masculinity, law and nature, and nevertheless construct his “selfhood”and portray his true “authentic” self[s]. Ad’s understanding of art and the essence of life are further challenged in conceptual projects, in concepts of dichotomy, “repetition and difference“, interiority and exteriority, private and public, construction and deconstruction, consciousness and unconsciousness, body and mind, soul and life.
In his most recent works [BwO/CsO 2017], Ad disentangles his mind and reveals modern abstract concepts; through a kinetic installation – he expands the horizon and widens the surface – by folding and stretching the skin – limited visibility unfolds –
the horizontal becomes diagonal -/ and while perception stretches into infinity – “the truth” [dis]appears [with]in the understanding of humanity, the thresholds of the existence.
Ad Achkar’s works have been exhibited at: MACAM (Lebanon 2019), Photoplace Gallery (Vermont, USA 2019), LAB 30 (Augsburg, Germany 2017), Artscoops (Lebanon 2017), Academie Lounge (Berlin 2016), Fellini Gallery (Berlin 2019), Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria 2016), The Story of the Creative (New York, USA 2013), Snap! Orlando, (Florida, USA 2012), Ayyam Gallery (Dubai, UAE 2011); and Unesco Palace (Beirut, Lebanon 2010).