Malik Whitaker

Malik Whitaker was born and raised in Newark, NJ. From a very young age his parents recognized his passion and talent as an artist and enrolled him in several workshops and art classes. He studied advanced art while attending high school at St. Benedicts Prep and later at Rutgers University and the Art Institute of America, along with several artist programs and residencies.

While growing his art career he has consistently worked as a bartender and massage therapist to support his dreams. From his studies, he has translated his style and technique into a complete disciplinary form. This form he has used to mentor inner city students for the Newark public school system and charter schools, such as Team Academy and Great Oaks Charter School, who are interested in art and want to learn how to apply their artistic disciplines to their daily lives. His illustrations have appeared in many poetry books and publications. He is also an accomplished muralist whose work can be seen on several buildings, churches and colleges throughout Essex County.

Malik is most famous for his “Brick City Project”, a collection of bricks with painted scenes of Newark, which he’s displayed in many galleries and exhibitions around Newark, Jersey City and NYC. As a Newark born artist, the trials and tribulations of living in the inner city has helped to shape Malik’s passion and appreciation for life. His artistic style is pure, unique and thought provoking. It reflects his passion towards his fellow man. He seeks to pass on and inspire positive messages to his community an all who view his works. He specializes in portrait and figurative painting impressions through visual translation based on individualized customer needs. He has studied many forms of art; oil, watercolor, acrylic, pencil, charcoal and pastels. His specific style offers a strong, colorful and mysterious perspective of people in their natural elements geared to show the forgotten beauty in all of us. Through this technique, he aims towards inspiring everyone to remember their own vitality for life and creativity. He currently is the owner of M-Print Art studios in Newark, where he continues to display his art while working on projects and mentoring students. Malik is also currently mentoring and teaching art to students with physical and mental disabilities and facilitating workshops in public school systems.