Nejib Ghanmi, the artist who releases creative fervour and emotive freshness

Comme promis à nos lecteurs, après la traduction de l’article culturel sur l’artiste Najib Ghanmi, en langue italienne, voici le papier en question traduit en langue anglaise par l’universitaire Nora Essafi. Bonne lecture à tous les anglophones.

When you look at your child sitting in front of an A4 drawing paper, holding his brush running with paint…Which parent never wondered to be the one who gave birth to the next Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci or Bacon ? After all, all of the greatest painters have also been youth. Doesn’t talent emerge in childhood? Surely Nejib Ghanmi possesses this fibre typical of exceptional artists. Since his early childhood he was immersed both in the arts and knowledge.

Later after completing his secondary education in Tunisia in 1999 he left for the UK to study visual arts and design at the Morecambe and Lancaster School of Art (Art Foundation Course, Lancaster, Lancashire). In 2000 he applied for, and was accepted to embark on a BA in Arts and Design at the prestigious University of Kingston-Upon-Thames.

A challenge crowned with success. He graduated three years later in 2003. He then spent two more years in London training in design and branding for world known companies from the ‘Body Shop’ to the London branch of ‘Landor Associates’ wherefrom he was offered a contract with the Dubai branch of ‘Landor’ in October 2005.
Eight years later, craving for a pause from the exciting but hectic and tiresome world of multinational companies, he prepares his first exhibition in Tunis (December 2013-January 2014), which proved a success and confirmed his incredible talent. A revelation!
He then leaves Tunisia (June 2014) for Doha for an appointment as Strategy and Branding Director at ’60°’.
In 2019, he set up his own company ‘Hub’ (for Human Brands). In spite of the demanding responsibilities he never stopped painting, always self-questioning his art and his technique, continuously exploring new routes, new forms of expression.

In fact, the artist developed his taste and passion for painting since he was a very young child. His mother, Nora Essafi, confided: ‘When he was only five years old I was astonished by his awsome paintings, his colour instinct and mastery’. Since then there seems to be no limit to his imagination and inspiration.
Today he shares his creations and his unique artistic universe. However, few know him. Maybe preferring full light exclusively for his canvases, which, actually, speak on his behalf.

His canvases liberated his genuine creative fervour. He trods on the different paths offered to him while trying new ones, unexplored before. Following his inspiration he never shies away from mixing colours and styles.

Whether as a figurative or abstract or semi-abstract artist, he will continuously find his inspiration in the sheer dripping, hand laying or casting of his paint which wonderfully blooms on his canvases. They flourish with a fascinating stirring freshness.

On certain paintings faces appear. They are nameless, unknown or invisible, as if inhabited by a soul capable of triggering emotions.
The plastic dynamic is doubtlessly the artist’s response to human anxieties. However, colours and shapes stretch against any form of degradation.

N.E