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Mustafa Sidki

Essex

 

Until my late teens I grew up in a strict Muslim household where everyone was expected to take part in religious activities. From an early age we were encouraged to memorise prayers and fast during the month of Ramadan. With peers I was perceived as English but at home a different set of rules applied. Over thirty years later and an atheist, those Islamic traditions and religious indoctrination lay buried and are unconsciously, deeply embedded. My work is based upon these memories. I have created a series of works around a theme that refer to the interpretation of traditional prayers, employing a typographical approach utilising both digital and traditional letterpress processes. I use relief printmaking with monoprint, wooden type and linocuts to create these unique prints. I am also exploring 3-D forms that incorporate construction with traditional printmaking methods. Everything I create starts life, or has been recorded, in a sketchbook. These sketchbooks are on going, forming a rich document of thoughts and ideas, both technical and conceptual.

 

Training: MA Printmaking, Anglia Ruskin University – 2013

Occupation: Printmaking tutor and practising artist printmaker
 

Exhibition profile:

The Fitzwilliam Museum - Print included in 'The Human Touch: Making Art, Leaving Traces' exhibition - Cambridge, UK - 2021

NOPE (National Original Print Exhibition) Bankside Gallery London - 2018

neo:printprize, International Print Biennale – Bolton, UK - 2016

International Open Print Exhibition - Art at Wharepuke, New Zealand - 2016

Gibberd Gallery, Essex, UK - 2016

Bloomberg New Contemporaries:
World Museum Liverpool, UK - 2014
The ICA, The Mall, London - 2014-15

Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance, UK - March 2015

The National Open Art Competition (NOA) Somerset House, Strand London - 2014

The Minerva Festival Theatre, Chichester, UK - 2015

Abbey Walk Gallery, Grimsby, UK - 2014 (Invited artist)

Madison Museum of Fine Art (MMoFA) Georgia, USA - 2014
From 2020 work now held at Museum of Arts and Sciences (MAS Macon) - Georgia, USA

Print Jam, Art Bermondsey (award winner) London - 2014

East Contemporary Art Collection - Suffolk, UK - 2013

Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge, UK - 2013

Williams Art Gallery, Cambridge, UK - 2013

Burts Gallery, Southwark, London - 2011

 

Prints in the collection of:

National Portrait Gallery (London) 2022 
Two prints entitled 'Forebearer I & II' (Cardboard cut with monoprint background)     

V&A London permanent print collection 2022 
Hommage II, 2/10 (VE) Variable Edition - cardboard, linocut, and mono print

The Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, UK - 2021

Museum of Arts and Sciences (MAS Macon) - Georgia USA - 2020

The East Contemporary Art Collection - 2013

21st Century British Painting and Drawing - Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, UK - 2013

 

Publications: Work included in:

Printmaking Today - Profiled artist - 2019

‘Extraordinary Sketchbooks’ A&C Black, London - 2011

‘Printmaking on a Budget’, A&C Black, London - 2008

‘Drawing Matters’ A&C Black, London - 2004

'Printmaking for Beginners’, A&C Black, London - 2004

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