User:Pkaur04/sandbox

= Inkquisitive =

About
Amandeep Singh, also known as Inkquisitive, is an Illustrator with over 10 years of experience making private commissions and personal artworks. Born in London, Singh graduated with an Honours in Graphic Design from Hertfordshire University and later a Masters in Illustration before getting married and moving to Canada. The young entrepreneur has done many exhibitions and tours over his career and has a vast amount of people wanting him to make custom pieces for their loved ones. He first started posting on his social media account in 2012 after his mother encouraged him to post his artwork online and now, he has nearly 300k followers with a long list of celebrity clientele.

Singh took inspiration from Banksy by being anonymous when he first started out but decided to let people know who he was because it helped him get connections and make himself well known. His mother came up with the pseudonym Inkquisitive because she said his work makes people ask questions and pay attention to the smaller details that he likes to hide. He is a big fan of Basquiat and growing up, he read a lot of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake, which inspired him to publish his own children’s book. He gets his art style from his father as he has been drawing since he was young. His father was a calligrapher and after dabbling with some of his tools, Ink settled on using Indian inks to make his work as a link to his culture and to show people the beauty of it. Ink gets inspiration from anything around him and likes to make things in the moment as they are. He claims that his art reflects him and the journey he’s gone through to get to where he is now which has helped him be as honest as possible. He likes to call his art his “diary” because it tells a story.

Famous clients
·      Gurdas Maan

·      LL Cool J

·      Kareena Kapoor

·      Madhuri Dixit

·      Nargis Fakhri

·      Arsenal- Mesut Ozil

·      Premier league- Jose Mourinho

·      Mayor of London

·      Aaron Ramsey- premier league

·      Ravi Singh/ Khalsa Aid

·      Sidhu Moose Wala

·      Collab with Apple

·      Collab with Netflix

·      Ancient House Museum

·      Collab with Louis Vuitton

·      AP Dhillon

·      Disney/ Marvel

·      Diljit Dosanjh

Being ‘different’
Ink has said that for many Asians, being an illustrator full-time or having any part in the art industry is uncommon. When asked about it, Singh describes his experience as being a struggle because he tried to fit into societies expectations of being an artist but realised that didn’t work for him and he should do things his way. He admits that when he told his parents that he wanted to do graphic design, they were sceptical at first but didn’t discourage him because he was passionate about it. Singh has said that making a career out of his imagination has been hard because he gets creative blocks sometimes which can keep him up a night and differentiating between treating this as a hobby and a career is hard and mentally tiring but he's grateful for the opportunities he’s been given.

Exhibitions/ Tours
·      Keep calm imagination is free- Toronto 2012

·      Souled Out- Toronto/ New York/ Vancouver/ Sacramento 2013

·      Imperfection is beauty- Sydney/ Melbourne 2014

·      Australia tour 2015

·      Controlled chaos- Nairobi 2015

·      A man in deep thought- London 2015

·      Hide and Sikh- Toronto 2016

·      Colourfornia Tour- San Jose/ LA/ Fresno 2016

·      City of Dreams tour- New York/ Oslo/ Seattle/ Vancouver/ Fresno 2016

·      Heartaches better the art- Sydney/ New Zealand/Perth 2017

·      Singapore 2022

·      KPMG Sikh Network 2023

other work
·      Rise On The Runway collaboration

·      Asian Wealth magazine cover

·      Campaign with Porsche

·      Modelling for River Island

·      Won a Pothohar Award

·      Elephant Atta collaboration

·      Appearance on blue peter

·      Released a children's book

·      Appearance on BBC One

·       Collab with Warner Bros

·      Won Global icon of the year award

Controversy
With every task comes criticisms and Singh has had his fair shares. Because his work represents what he feels and thinks, he must be wary of the words he chooses to use and what his artwork is representing to avoid getting the wrong reaction from his audience. In March, he published a piece of work that faced a lot of backlashes from the public. He was called ‘inconsiderate’ and ‘anti-national’ and even had death threats sent to him privately. This caused him to issue a public apology on his social media account and rework his piece to fit people’s criteria. Punjabi singer Shubh posted his thoughts in solidarity with Ink but also received backlashes, lost sponsorships and his debut show cancelled.