“I Am Who I Am,” says artist
Like a good number of his fellow Belizeans, Alex Sanker has found that his homeland cannot satisfy all his needs. But while this talented artist no longer resides in Belize, his latest exhibition, opening tonight at the Mopan Hotel, shows that there’s no place like home.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
The lone artist whose works are on display at Hotel Mopan is Alex Sanker. Brightly coloured acrylic paintings capture a slice of Belizean life.
Alex Sanker, Artist
“A piece where the ex-Prime Minister, Mr. George Price was sworn out of office, and I captured that on canvas. Also I have a piece perpetrating myself a true born Belizean artist. I have some underwater scenes, also I have some semi-nude. To me a lot of people look at it differently, but to me it’s art. Art come in different forms, shapes and sizes.”
Ann-Marie Williams
And while one man’s art comes in different shapes and sizes, Sanker realises that one man’s art is another man’s trash.
Alex Sanker
“The way you talk to me is art. The way people carry themselves is a part of art. But when it comes specific to canvas, it’s like…Certain people pay millions of dollars for paintings, and certain people would say their crazy or have money to waste. But one man’s feeling towards a piece, it could be a material piece of stub or something that value in different forms or ways, people just come to appreciate that they know what they like. And personally it’s like you buying something for your son, you love him, you’re going to go all out. That’s the way people treat art.”
Sanker has come to appreciate the way people treat art, having left Belize, where he worked as a porter, four years ago to live in New York and new Houston.
Alex Sanker
“The African-American culture in the United States has a big impact in the United States, so there’s a market for African-American pieces. I did some pieces, which the public is going to see at the exhibition if they should attend. I did a few pieces that show people that also move out of the swamp, but survive in the salt water.
There’s a piece that I did with this little boy holding up a sign. On the sign it marked “why is there so much hate? Why so little love?” Personally, like everything else, we don’t have all the answers, but as individuals, it’s a message piece, and I think people should take it their own way.”
Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
“I Am Who I Am” opens to the public on Wednesday and runs only through Friday at the Hotel Mopan on Regent Street. Opening hours are 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
