Kareem Rizk

Australian artist, Kareem Rizk, studied a Bachelor of Graphic Design at Monash University Caulfield in 2004, with all intentions of pursuing a career in graphic design. After completing the course, he worked for the Herald Sun doing design work but felt he wasn’t being challenged enough or able to express his creativity, ultimately resigning after 8 - 9 months. The Bachelor of Graphic Design encouraged Rizk to explore and experiment with mixed media, which led him to pursue a more fine art style. Collage became the focus of his works.

Rizk’s interests shifted to collage work in 2005. Rizk’s style is one of a vintage type, pretty much like one of his influences Charles Wilkin. He sources his imagery from old publications such as New Idea and would stick to this publication so the works had the same feel to them. Grid paper, torn paper, black and white imagery of cars and people are common elements Rizk uses in his work. To avoid copyright issues Rizk would make an image unrecognisable by scratching out familiar parts of an image, giving it a weathered look. Random typography that has no purpose or story is another major element in his works. Experimenting with oil pastel, acrylic, carbon and pencil Rizk would build up a background, find an image and build around it. His work is highly textured and layered. His technique is very structured as if he was working on a grid, but spontaneous looking at the same time. Rizk’s likes to keep his designs very original, simple and dynamic, never over-doing it.

In 2006, Rizk began promoting his work over the Internet establishing a string online presence. He built a huge online folio, which took about 3 months, where he would provide visuals of his work to sell. After a few weeks of promoting his work, Rizk received feedback from the UK and was given opportunities for printed publication and exposure. Which then led to offers to exhibit his work in galleries. Risks' first major solo exhibition was in June 2008 at Phone Booth Gallery in Long Beach California. Since then Rizk has held exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Los Angeles, Washington DC, London, Barcelona and Milan. Rizk has also had his work published in numerous magazines and publications, on t-shirts, shoes, skateboard decks and mugs.

Rizk believes it is important to get out of your comfort zone, to explore and experiment with different medias and techniques, and take a rizk. LOL. But dude, wanting 400 an hour is such a joke. Like you were good.. but not great.