The paintings of a 21-year-old from Iași, Khaled Matar, will reach the Moon through the Lunar Codex.
Khaled Matar is an alumna of the Octav Băncilă National College of Art in Iași. “Fire Keeper” and “Reaching for the Holy Grail” are paintings which received Honorable Mentions in the International ARC Salon Competition and which will be sent to the Moon, along with the works of 30,000 contemporary creators from 139 countries, reports NewsDirectory3.
Khaled Matar was born in Iași, and is half Palestinian and half Romanian.
In 2019, he won a 3rd place prize at the International ARC Salon Competition, Da Vinci Initiative category, with the self-portrait “I ripped the key from around my neck”, obtaining a mention from the Portrait Society of America. After graduating from high school, Khaled was accepted to The Swedish Academy of Realist Art, where he studied for a year (2020-2021). He won the competition for the summer scholarship at the Florence Academy of Art in Florence (Italy).
Following the 16th edition of the International Art Renewal Center Competition, Khaled obtained two Honorable Mentions with his paintings “Fire Keeper” and “Reaching for the Holy Grail”.
These will be included in the Lunar Codex “Polaris Collection” and will reach the Moon. The artworks will be laser engraved on a nickel microfiche or digitized on terabyte memory cards and included in a time capsule.
“The painting “Fire Keeper” is inspired by Joseph Campbell’s monomyth. This work depicts the rescue of the fallen hero to the Fire Keeper, meaning the keeper of the fire who gives him the eternal fire that will revive him and drive away the darkness”, says Khaled about “Fire Keeper”, one of the works that brought him an Honorable Mention.
“Reaching for the Holy Grail” represents the search for the Holy Grail. The story of King Arthur and his knights who ventured into the unknown to find this symbol of the most precious treasure deeply impressed me. Without knowing exactly what this artifact is or where it can be found, guided only by the conviction of its existence, they decided to start their search from the point where the forest seemed darkest to them. I decided to represent the Holy Grail as a chalice, while out of the darkness the hands of the knights try to touch each other. Only by conquering the unknown can one reach one’s ideal”, explains the young man about “Reaching for the Holy Grail”, the second awarded painting.
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