Akash Beharry is a Trinidadian painter, printmaker and
visual arts teacher at the ministry of education. His
paintings are done mostly in oil paints and his prints are
monotypes and reduction prints on paper. Born in Pointea-Pierre,
Trinidad, Beharry was raised in Fyzabad, a
small town in southern Trinidad. He received scholarships
from both Adelphi University and The Petroleum
Company of Trinidad and Tobago (PETROTRIN) in 2005,
and was also a grant recipient of the Helen Baldwin
scholarship fund. He earned his B.F.A. from Adelphi
University, New York. Mr. Beharry works figuratively,
drawing his inspiration from Hinduism which greatly
influenced him as a child.
"For most of my childhood and teenage years, I painted
Hindu iconographic images and portraits of deities. Like
most religious art, the figures were idealized which I
enjoyed recreating. After a while the faces became easier
to paint but harder to relate to. They were not similar to
those around me. My fascination with facial features in all
variety from person to person and across age, race and gender especially of the people I know, is
at the heart of my recent work. This series includes paintings in oils and acrylics on 12”x 12”
mounted panels and canvas. In the course of translating the facial features and with close attention
to detail, I develop a profound sense of deep familiarity and a superficially intimate relation with my
subjects.
Through my paintings I am able to develop my childhood interest in identity and the familiar face as
a place of stability and comfort. My art has become devotional and almost religious. Like the
images of my past, the faces and people that I know now may someday seem unfamiliar. I strive to
capture the familiar, the real, while they are. My portraits are not of gods but of people I know. They
are not idealized but are painted the way they happen to be. "
