Michael Hakimi’s works straddle the divide between figural and abstract representation. His images can be viewed as both geometric forms, and as pictorial elements with concrete points of reference. Hakimi often employs simple raw materials such as paper, oil, glass, metal, spray paint, and plywood in his works. A combination of incidental processes, found items and artistic self-restraint are the hallmarks of Hakimi’s practice, as demonstrated in the three works he has created for GAK’s annual editions. Hakimi’s panel paintings are reminiscent of Combine Painting and feature thick black roading-quality bitumen on plywood together with several rusty old bottle caps. The bitumen’s consistency evokes memories of sweltering heat as discarded objects are trod into a melting surface – an elastic mass inscribed with the quotidian signs of urbanity.