Biography

I was born on the 4th of July 1971. I spent the first 30 years of my life in Alexandria Egypt where I was taught to paint and draw by my uncle, Egyptian painter Ibrahim El-Tanbouli, from the tender age of 2 years old.

I started formal education in art and design in 1989 for 5 years. I studied many things which I've rarely practiced, such as interior design, theatrical scenography and costume design; yet they've all helped to shape my work as painter and draftsman.

Over the last 10 years, my work consists of Drawing, Painting and Mural art.

I live and work in England since 2002, and currently I'm an MA Fine Art Printmaking candidate at Camberwell College of Arts, London.

Artist statement:

If you are looking for a conceptual artist, I'm not the man you are looking for.

My work comes through an eastern awareness of the artistic process, a process focused on inward examination and inward development, on art as a “personal philosophical territory.”

When I paint I feel like St.George. Painting is bloody and intense.
What you regard as an empty canvas, is my holy altar calling for a sacrificial act.
What you view as my painting is the same dead body of the dragon that once lived inside my soul.
Every battle leaves a mark or two; and over the years the scars became a shield of blood, which I wear even while I'm not painting

My art is a shamanic, even tribal practice. The artist, like the storyteller, has always been responsible for telling the tribe about themselves. A burden of responsibility.

Therefore I'm interested in Jung's notion of archetypes and collective unconscious, as I find this to be the pathway to creating artwork that communicates to an international, cosmopolitan audience

I often find my inspiration within narrative literature. Jonah inside the whale becomes Estragon waiting for Godot, and they are the man in my painting, who is a representation of both me and you.

Nazir Tanbouli 2010