Background
Sanki was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and raised in Karachi, Pakistan. His father was an interpreter at the Islamic Development Bank. His mother died when he was only nine years old.
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Sanki King
Edit ProfileCareer
Sanki is the pioneer of graffiti, calligraffiti, sneaker art, sticker art and b-boying in Pakistan and also one of the pioneers of parkour in Pakistan. He was introduced to hip hop one year later and was influenced by films such as You Got Served. He learned the ropes through videos on the Internet.
He also learned BMX, boxing and floor gymnastics.
King has been proficient in hip hop since the age of ten: rap, beatboxing, parkour, b-boying, DJing. He frequented gaming zones as a teenager and when a friend calling him ‘Sanki’ it stuck in his mind and became his identity.
The term "Sanki" is thought to mean mad to crazy, but the artist claims it also means "deep thinker". He started his journey in graffiti, parkour and b-boying between 2005-2006.
In 2008, Sanki started his career as a professional performing artist after being noticed and photographed by Tapu Javeri while freerunning in a park in Karachi and later performed at the launch of Style 360.
From 2011, he began selling artwork and painting commissioned murals as a professional artist and in March 2012 started his own personal studio where he currently works. Graffiti
Known for his wide range of skills from simple bubble letters to figurative graffiti, calligraffiti, stencil work and 3D letters. Some of his works include Love Karachi on a bus and another one titled Flying Kiss adorned on the walls outside Arts Council, Karachi.
In December 2012, he was chosen as the judge for a nationwide graffiti competition spread across seven cities.
Sanki"s work is featured in Nicholas Ganz’s book, Street Messages, published in April 2015. He is widely known as the "Banksy of Pakistan" to which he says "“But I don’t want to be a second Banksy, I want to be the first Sanki!”.
Custom-painting and Fashion
Sanki King is known for his graffiti art on sneakers, using paint, marker pens and stencils. He originally came across the idea in the movies, taught himself the skills.
He now runs his own company making custom-painted sneakers and apparel, as well as organising dance and graffiti workshops.
In 2014, Sanki did his 1st fashion collaboration with a local designer brand "Zeb-Tan". In 2015 Sanki collaborated with a well-known designer label, House of Arsalan Iqbal, for a collection of clothing designs called "Desirably Distressed". Another collection called "Devolution Chic" was showcased a month later at the 8th PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week 2015.
B-boying and Parkour
King is one of the early leaders of b-boying and parkour in Pakistan and began teaching b-boying to a group of young kids between 2008-2009 and later turned it into a b-boying crew, Unknown Crew (University of California), founded in 2010 in Karachi.
Sanki King lives and works in Karachi.
Achievements
Membership
He is a member of graffiti crew Beyond Mankind Krew (BMK), founded in 1991, in Queens, New York City.
