Exhibitions

In his new series Sasan Abri utilizes color to express emotions. A choice to communicate basic human feelings that are portrayed and not explained. He delves in to the world of nature and picks one color. Like all monochrome works of art, this collection floats in the realm of emotions, where differentiation is impossible; a world of fullness and void where time is obliterated, and purity of color invites the viewers to contemplate and take one moment away from the hectic world and to stare at essence of being.
For catalogue of exhibition artist writes:
I have always looked for a haven in nature. Nature that is glorious and unpredictable and has thousands of colors. In this mass of colors, a certain color appeared in the depth of my psyche and my vision and it was transferred to the sensitive surface of film. A color that was protruding from inner depths to the exterior: Blue. And not the familiar blue, but a radiant blue which was streaming from the depths of my being and it should be called “The Ultra Blue”.
This blue is a plenary color. A finely formed color that has slowly walked in to the camera. After mixing with other colors, it slowly emerged from the depth of life and gradually and after mixing with a wide spectrum of different lights and shades, it finally settled on paper.
Patterns merged with visages and made the blue portraits. The ultra blue for me is the embodiment of the infinite simplicity of life and its meaning. A meaning that is Anthropomorphic and a beacon of hope which radiates from every living being and it is dynamic and if you look deep enough it is constant and repetitious.

In collaboration with Iranian Association of Sculptors

The very large or “colossal” statues have had an enduring appeal since ancient times, and so does small sculptures, which as personal possessions or small figurines of deities have been found all over the world.
Artists have been commissioned to create large splendid sculptures to mark events and mainly to “exhibit” power and wealth. On the contrary , generally, small sculptures have been for personal use, entwined with personal attachments, and mostly are result of impulses and desires of their creators. Throughout history refined and delicate small statues have invoked positive reaction from the viewers, who find them more appealing and intimate than the glorification that is inherent in grand sculptures. Despite their sizes the small sculptures are often more admired than large scale pieces, because of the fact that the craftsmanship in a small scale is harder to achieve, there is hardly room for error and therefore patience of the creator is always admired.
For the 9th Exhibition of Small Sculpture, 45 artists will be exhibiting their works. Works that cover a wide and appealing array of subjects and materials. What is common in these sculptures is the personal and informal approach, a sample although Small, of the personal language that each artist has applied to reveal their emotions and reflections.
In this selection, ordinary and extraordinary events are touched upon; burning of stray cats along with their guardian in a freak accident (Burnt Cat, by Elnaz Ghaemi), pleasant time spent in Manuchehri House in Kashan (by Sam Nikmaram) to yesteryears and popular women’s magazine (by Nastaran Safaei), to fragility of life (by Massih Moshtaghi)…
This exhibition is a sample of different approaches and practices of Iranian contemporary artists who are persisting on their individuality as any other contemporary human being and showcasing what is spun from the heart and woven from the soul.

Solo show by Sara Ghanbari

For her first solo show Sara Ghanbari tackles the subjects of time and memories and how our perception of life changes as time goes by. She is preoccupied with nature, and that has led her to paint on leaves and to bring in landscapes in to her paintings. In this series she illustrates a suspended space: between present and the past. In her twin paintings, the first image is painted and in the second Act, the final result is painstakingly printed with paint thinner process, and the crumbled leaves are inserted. She successfully portrays the flow of time and by re-producing the images, she raises the question of vitality and perception of memories, walking on the edge of memories.
Presence of light is evident in these paintings and is emitted to the viewer. The lightness and fragility of paintings makes them intimate and accessible to everyone; a delightful walk in the forest, a dip in the pond, a walk in the snow. The interaction between presence of light and subject matters results in almost transparent images. She honors and exalts simple acts of life. These paintings take their origin from emotions recollected in tranquility. A course that artist has chosen to heal wounds and by title of exhibition she promises to cherish and glorify the remainder of the days.

Opening at Aaran Projects on 18th September.

I am a taphographer, I make grave markers, for the past fifteen years I take pictures of graves and burials and I make frottages on epitaphs of those eliminated only to distribute them. I have also made cenotaphs. Memorials too, for the dead and the living. All these frame Curriculum Mortis. It is true to say that Curriculum Mortis is not a series. I cannot make series. Certainly one can categorise these works as broken gravestones, mourners, survivors, the anonymous, the killed, perpetual and ephemeral grave markers, the living and the dead and even a set of graves and memorials that like Flemish vanitas paintings have snails crawling on them. But in this volume there are works that are included in the exhibition and there are also works that are not. They are not included, because, they are not here, they are in cemeteries or are cenotaphs or memorials now residing in museums or in someone’s house, or I am forbidden to show them or they should not be here. On the other side, in the exhibition there are things that are not included in this publication. And there are things that are neither in this publication nor in that exhibition. This is what curriculum stands for. A curriculum is an account, it is a course. Each of these show one moment of this path. For all this, all I publish or show should bear this name. And so far there are one other exhibition and two publications by this name. I assume this would be the case forever.
Barbad Golshiri

Opening at Aaran Projects on 18th September.

Group installation exhibition and performances curated by Amir Ali Ghassemi

Artists: Atoosa Pourhosseini, Navid Salajegheh and Bahar Samadi

Semi-Dark Room is a group installation exhibition & performances taking place at Aaran projects in the last days September. The exhibition includes the installation experiences in the field of «Expanded Cinema», «Performance Art» and «Moving images installations» by the artists.
In «Semi-Dark Room» a limited source of light partially lightens the room. Light passes through series of intervening filters that sometimes depict images and at other times contain memories. In the meantime the devised machinery are important passages that regardless of their obvious logic, operate and implement changes and alterations that are for and against perception.

Semi Dark Room is part of a project titled “The Luminous Void”, other programs of this project will be on view at Lajevardi Collection and Darbast Platform. For More info and data please visit website of “New Media Society”: www.newmediasoc.com

Bahar Samadi (b.1981, Tehran)is a Tehran Paris experimental film maker.
She studied architecture in Azad University of Art and Architecture in Tehran, Iran (2006) and graduated in Filmmaking from EICAR university of Paris, France (2012).

Navid Salajegheh (b. 1981, Tehran) is a Paris based architect, urban designer and visual artist. He received his MA in Architecture from Azad Art and Architecture university of Tehran and graduated in “Architecture: city and urban project” from L’ecole nationale d’Architecture de Marseille, Marseille/France. Together with Bahar Samadi they have started Studio 51.

Atoosa Pour Hosseini (b. Tehran 1981) is an artist based in Dublin/ Ireland. She holds a
MA in Fine Art Media from National College of Art and Design, Dublin (2014), as well as BA
in Fine Art Painting at Azad University of Art and Architecture, Tehran (2007).

Solo show by Naghmeh Ghassemlou

Aaran Gallery is pleased to present latest works of Naghmeh Ghassemlou. The new series of works circles around time, and how the passage of time shapes our identity. In this highly personal series, Artist whose earlier series of works are part of permanent collection of LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum) and TMOCA, (Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art), merges her own photographs with that of her father, Reza Ghassemlou, who owned and operated “Photo Asia Shop”, in Tehran between 1950s to 1970s.
She writes: The first image of the series “Me, And My Dad”, is the result of years of probing and playing with my father’s photographs, and the idea of finding a way to connect moments of his life with mine. The challenge was to maintain the entirety of image, by connecting two separate photographs taken at two different times and places, and to connect them in a way that the least amount of separation is evident to the viewer, in other words the points of excision and connection are of outmost importance and this was my main concern. Neither of images were meant to come together, but were chosen from archive to create a third image. Although the contents of the third image are taken from the two photographs but the result is neither the first nor the second photograph. The new image has its own meaning and identity and independently stands on its own merit.

Opening on 21st August 2015 at Aaran Projects.

A selection by Behrang Samadzadegan and Aaran Gallery

Artists present in this exhibition:
Marcos Grigorian – Kamran Diba – Mohammad Hossein Emad – Mostafa Darebaghi – Korosh Ghazimorad – Mahmoud Mahroumi – Sahand Hesamiyan – Barbad Golshiri – Mona Aghababee – Reza Sedighian – Masoumeh Mohtadi – Samaneh Motallebi – Reza Eshlaghi – Aliyar Rasti – Shabnam Lohrasbi.

Historically in practice of Iranian artists -excluding possible exceptions- the lyrical, thematic, narrative or message orientated, have been the essence of creativity. All kinds of themes; phenomenal, political, social, literal, emotional, narration, and transcendent experiences, have always been at the core of artistic practice. Once the Iranian artist approaches a minimum state, such as a white or black rectangular, the process of creation leads to a rectangular of “nothingness”, or saturation of “blackness”. When they apply the repetitive geometrical shapes, the fractal is expanded in an aesthetic discipline. If they reach the black rectangular, it’s not a sign of Minimalism, but it’s in accord with the Duchampian effect of “Art is no more retinal”; Very often this same artists reach the state of “non written”, or saturation that is an indicator of incapability of language of art to carry the load of the mind.
Rhythm in many aspects of “outwardly minimal looking works of art” has a narrative scope. Because it is joined with motives that are neither necessarily minimal nor are meaningless shapes. Many of our artists are “narrators of elimination”. There are concrete cubes that hide historical tragedy. And drawings that are self exploring, methodical and minimal but playful. Or in practice of Marcos Grigorian, who after Auschwitz arrives at nonexistence and void. Or in paintings of Kamran Diba where after the elimination of news -the cover up of knowledge-, the text converts to rhythmic bulks of color. Or in works of Emad the act of elimination in conjunction with the lyrical mentality of artist, results in “deduced” forms. It’s no more possible to observe and judge the work of art without referring to the context and author’s wishes and concept. It is essential to expand the perceptions and avoid labeling of works of art. And here is the subtle point of differentiating between two concepts of “Minimal and “Minimum”. All the works presented in this exhibition are related, in the sense that with “Less” they say “More”…
Excerpts from catalogue by Behrang Samadzadegan

Solo show by Mohammad Eskandari

Eskandari’s Butterfly Stickers
By Talinn Grigor

There is a simultaneous sense of futurity and historicity in the five large canvas paintings, and one video work, by artist Mohammad Eskandari. His superb mastery over the brush comes from having been born into an artistic family as well as a successful artistic education and career. Yet, these images are not merely an outcome of skill and upbringing. Through that inheritance, these works convey a deep insight into Iranian history, Iranian symbolism, Iranian modernity, Iranian wealth, and Iranian pain.On these canvases, Eskandari embraces the Qajar and Pahlavi pardeh khani tradition. An old Iranian artistic method, that I would trace even further back to Sassanian rock-cuts, portable paintings on large canvases (pardeh) used to illustrate the Battle of Karbala, Koranic stories, and the epic of the Shahnameh. Reviving the large-scale technique, the artist invokes other forms of historical accounts that speak so clearly about a tentative future. Thus, Eskandari selects fragments of rich architectural and geographic past: a gate, an Eyvan, a summit, and a forest collide into a future shaped by human agency that remains unresolved. Historical monuments, national symbols, fragments of natural landscape, and separate figures all hover on the painterly surface – somehow in a state of constant flux, a state of abstraction and foolishness that makes total sense. The painter speaks to his audience. The painter invites his viewer to inhabit a space of ambivalence and absurdity… a place that goes somewhere but that is certainly irresolute…
Excerpt from text by Talinn Grigor for catalogue of exhibition

Talinn Grigor (Ph.D., MIT) author of the book “Contemporary Iranian Art: From The Street To Studio”, is an Associate Professor of modern and contemporary architecture in the Department of Fine Arts at Brandeis University, Boston. Her research concentrates on the cross-pollination of architecture and (post)colonial politics, focused on Iran and India.

Solo show by Nima Alizadeh

Doonadoon, or “Jameh beh Jameh”, is the circulation of soul from one shell to another one, whether human, animal or vegetal.
The passage of time in these circles chisels its own image on human faces as if the person has lived for centuries. This collection is images of followers of “Dinyari” religion in Iranian Kurdistan, more commonly known as “Yaresan”*.
I had the opportunity to visit the area purposely to observe the festivities that is called “Khavankar”*, during which the inhabitants of villages and cities of the area gather to meet their elder in a village called “Toot Shami”*. By mid day the audience gather, and to music of Tambour, they sing their collective prayers and visit the leader and the elders. Among the more than five hundred people that were present few faces were calling to me. I invited them to be photographed with a black backdrop that I prepared, and they calmly faced my camera for few minutes and stared at the lens.
These images are a cut from a “Doon”, with gazes that are as old as humanity.
Nima Alizadeh

*Yarsanism, The Yarsan or Ahl-e Haqq,”People of Truth”, is a syncretic religion founded by Sultan Sahak in the late 14th century in Western Iran and Iraq. For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarsanism.
*Khavankar is a three day festival in mid Autumn and followers gather to celebrate it mainly in the village of “Toot Shami” in Dalahoo area of province of Kermanshah in Iran.

Solo show by Mona Aghababaee

In her organic forms, Mona Aghababaee creates both positive and negative spaces, the created works are manifestation of spaces of her mind. She integrates materials and evokes abstract forms to challenge boundaries of perception. The essence of her sculptures are the continuum of her mind. Simple organic shapes evoke figurative links and natural materials are forced to change shape, while the forms are abstract, they refer to living forms.

In the words of artist:
Objects, out of ourselves, seemingly quiescence, quite and passive; lacking subjectivity but ever present in my mind. I stare at these objects, to the point that I take their shape, I am swallowed, in a continuous spiral; perplexed and confounded to point of ambiguity, a hybrid reality.
Parasites have changed the ant, it’s neither an ant nor a parasite. The eggs of the parasite tasted and looked like food and the ant swallowed it and it became the bait. Where is the ant? What of the parasite? This transmutation, is it the reality?
….Between me and The Other, there is a consistent dialogue which erodes both of us. It molds us and is the source of our decadence…

Solo show by Nasser Bakhshi
In collaboration with Nader & Nader LLC.

Nasser Bakhshi is a self taught artist and lives far from the hustle and bustle of the Capital, in the wonderful land of Azerbaijan. He places his memories and bits of his soul and heart as well as our collective memories inside old boxes that he finds in forgotten corners of the city of Tabriz.
The assemblages have an indefinite quality. The boxes act as repositories, as if at a later time the artist will revisit these visual documentaries of his life and time, and will add his new memories and perceptions. The mundane objects next to the extraordinarily painted pieces create time capsules that are decidedly poetic. The discarded boxes and bits and pieces that were once beautiful and useful, are tenderly rearranged to whisper the story of a life. The intimate quality of these works tempt the viewer to open the boxes and drop pieces of their own life in to the mix.
The extraordinary quality of drawing and paintings create instant classics. Besides images painted from photographs as simulations of reality, the drawings are “simulation of something which never really existed”. The combination of the two genres adds to the excitement and marvel of the boxes.
While the large scale paintings stand on their own strength and beauty, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate them from the boxes. The large paintings are “details” of the paintings within the boxes; taken out of their place and accentuated, a reverse action of seeing with magnifying glass. They seem to come out of the boxes to deliver their own monologues. The boxes are accumulation of images and elements that artist lives with and they narrate the dreams and wishes, as well as failures and uncertainties of their creator; who is one of many, one of us, many of us.

Solo show by Nogol Mazloumi

It has taken Nogol Mazloumi, exactly One thousand three hundred sixty Hours and twenty-one minutes to complete the startlingly powerful drawings of this exhibition. It is an archaic attitude, one that is retention of an age old practice of Iranian artists and their interest in pen and ink drawing which is well documented to Il-Khanid period (1256-1353 AD). For centuries Iranian artists, in their solitude, have created marvelous imagery, a separate world where they have found the redeeming answer to brutality chaos and frustration that seems always to have been a part of daily life.
Nogol Mazloumi is preoccupied with notion of death and non existence. For the catalogue she writes: The notion of before and after life which is incomprehensible to us, is void. Death is a boundless void, and in its intervals life exists. Death is not performed and is not a position, it’s devoid of any act. But it contains all acts because it engulfs life. In reality It is life that happens. So in this way death is both life and it is not.
In these breath taking drawings, artist creates life and beauty out of her fixation with death. Through her lines music flows and the harmony which the eye enjoys as it passes to and fro over the compositions is soothing. Here is Phoenix rising from ashes, phoenix who is believed to possess the knowledge of all times and the netherworld. From ashes she arises to create life and wonderment. She plunges in to flames to be purified and to rise again. It is this self renewing quality in Iranian art that has been the merit and source of its survival through dark times with artists who have boldly faced their own demons and have risen above expectations, each time stronger, each time mightier.

Solo show by Arash Sedaghatkish

For Arash Sedaghatkish it is all about learning, and practice of patience, energy and time, in order to complete and to excel. This is accomplishment arrived at by great effort and determination; the strengthening of the body and the mind, the learning and the perfection of one’s skills and excellence achieved through long practice.
Through his watercolors, artist explores the boundaries of the medium, the conviction of scale in watercolor and the necessity or accordingly lack of the background. The paintings are fluid and translucent, as is water color. In these series spots of color and water come together, in a slow motion and patient manner, to create large scale paintings that their accuracy and size are contradictory to the well established genre of water color painting. The control of artist on the medium and his clarity about his subject is evident and the next act is to have the animated subjects of the paintings at the gallery to complete the installation.

Solo show by Baktash Sarang

The Tower of Babel is a story told in the Book of Genesis, of a people who spoke one language and they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”. But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them over the face of all the earth, and they ceased to build the city.*
The Tower of Babel is the story of a failed utopian project, and probably that is the common trait in all utopian projects, ideas and projects that attempt to build utopia, but find meaning in close encounter with failure and the more idealistic they are the possibility of failure is larger. If the tower of Babel ever existed, the location would have been the historical city of Babel in Mesopotamia, the region called Middle East today, where the contemporary history of the region, is not unlike the story of Tower of Babel. The region where even its current given name is a challenge by itself and its contemporary history of wars and struggles (often inflicted from outside), with waves of revolutions, civil wars, collapses and changes of Regime –all happening in short spans of time- is the embodiment of idealism and failure.
A region that seems to be fenced in and resembles a forbidden zone where ruins of many towers, in state of decay and decline, can be found. Towers that are the epitome of the idealism of their builders and quite often reminders of despotic regimes that have attempted to build their Ideological towers whilst their people are forced to live with constant fear and terror, the kind of fear that Mikhail Bakhtin called Cosmic Terror.

Solo show by Dadbeh Basir

The photographs of Dadbeh Bassir have a certain vivacity, and that is perhaps why you Encounter them. The act of ‘taking’ a photograph is not mundane to him; every detail from inception to method is thorough, and the final product gives viewers as much as it takes from them. The viewer responds to the images, and it appears that it is this reaction that the artist anticipates above all.

He weaves his personal emotions into his paced-out narratives. In his self-portraits, he faces his dilemmas; He dissects scans and x-ray films of his own body and demystifies them, and the sinister unknown becomes an object of utter beauty. In a similar approach, by juxtaposing the bland cityscape and the infinite sky – through the careful placing of the mirror, the artist creates a dreamlike world where uncertainties and fears are omitted.
The Feared Unknown is now embraced and made into the Familiar; thereby, the world is altered, tangible, and likable.
Dadbeh Bassir’s involvement with image-making is measured and profound; every single piece feels pre-determined and unwavering. Every Shot is treated as The Last Shot. His body of work appears to be a collective response to the world, whether as a series of works or single frames.

For this exhibition, he has chosen works that are visually different from each other, the cohesion is to be found through careful study of the concept of each image, and the clue will be to take the title of the exhibition as the precursor and to fit in the single pieces into the crossword.
And that is perhaps why he is simply the best-kept secret in the vibrant photography scene of Iran. This exhibition will be a rare occasion to study this brilliant image maker and his mannerism.

Solo show by Ramin Rahimi

Everything in the Universe is moving, every given spot in our planet is moving and the planet rotates around the sun and the sun rotates around Milky Way Galaxy. The molecules and atoms which make up everything are vibrating, colliding, and moving at a speed that thus far has been unreachable by inventions of human kind.
Life is a perpetual movement. The art of all arts is to capture a three dimensional contextual moment. Art is nuptials of thought and motion. Whether the motion is movement of the body of a painter while using a brush, or the three dimensional image makers‘ movement of a digital pen. Or as George Innes has observed: The true end of art is not to imitate a fixed material condition, but to represent a living emotion.

Ramin Rahimi has managed to produce motion in his art and thereby has moved away from the Fixed Image where time is suspended. He invites us to see The Sun, the perpetual movement and it’s dynamics. A call to observe the vibration of pulse of life, and simultaneously to the eloquence of silence.
In a series of digital moving-portraits and with two video pieces, he successfully transfers the constant motion of life and the rhythms of nature; the rise and the setting of sun and the return to the inception point.

Solo show by Mandana Moghaddam

Under: nedanför, nedom, lägre än, inunder,täckt av, dold av, underverk, mirakel, fenomen, kraftgärning, märklig händelse, tecken trollslag,trolleri, tur, lyckträff, stordåd, prestation, under över alla under märkligt, underligt nog,oväntade,märklig händelse, mirakel, tur…Landet:stat, nation, rike, fosterland, territorium,jordstycke, jordplätt, täppa, jord, odlingslott, fastland, fast mark, plantering, rabatt, trädgårdsland, grönsaksland,
Below, below the, less than underneath, covered, hidden by, marvel, miracle, phenomenon, strange occurrence, character, magic, lucky fluke, deed, wonder of wonders strange, oddly enough , unexpected, miracle, luck…State, nation, kingdom, homeland, territory, piece of ground, piece of land, plot, land, fast land, firm soil ,allotment, planting, garden beds, vegetable garden

Artist talk: Sunday, 23rd November, 5 pm

Solo show by Mahmoud Mahroumi

The itching of body or “what the sculpture Demands from me”
It is seventeen years since as a laborer in a factory producing concrete electrical posts, I was in charge of assembling the metal casts. My main responsibility was to make sure that the casts were properly fastened before the cement was poured. If the bolts and nuts were not properly secured, the mould would flatten or because of pressure the cement would reject the cast.
Since then concerns such as: Inhibition and discipline of materials, tightening liquidity, inner sanctums, destruction and entropy, order and modern splinting, totalitarian thoughts in application of materials, have carved a specific path for me.
Whenever I have tried to escape this hitch or play a different game, I have been caught in a different manner. As if this “entanglement” is a pleasant thing.It’s seventeen years since this itching has turned my body to a gigantic mould, and I am constantly scratching myself.
Mahmoud Mahroumi – 2012

Solo show by Kamran Diba

Kamran Diba’s cosmopolitan view of the world is reflected in recent paintings. There is no focus on local or national issues in choosing the themes and narratives. He assumes the news to be the “heart beat of human activity on earth, without it the indication of life on the earth seizes to exist” . He does not, however, focus on issues like various modes and approaches in news broadcasting, objectivity or lack of it, taking stance, and mind control through media. Regardless of the content of “global news”, he does not consider his work as being political. He believes that unlike artistic creation, politics is an issue of transient nature. The newspaper format is seemingly used as a ready-made template for painting. Even an echo of Formalist developments in Western art history might be traced in the general tendency of these series of paintings towards abstraction. In the present show the drawings have become much more simple and geometric. The previous realistic renderings have been replaced by abbreviated, geometric drawings. It is more difficult to guess about the themes and narratives, and the references have become more laconic. Major news events such as war, economy, politics and so on, are coded in pure, primary colours on the white canvas ground.
Kamran Diba’s ties to Iranian Art history are multiple and intense and his profound effect on the formative years of Iranian modern art movement is undeniable. In the same way, the course of his artistic practice strongly reflects the ups and downs of Iranian contemporary Art.
Helia Darabi – September 2014

Exhibition catalog: http://www.aarangallery.com/publications/catalog-news-clippings/

Solo show by Leila Ghandchi

Leila Ghandchi is not a feminist activist, however she is ready to saddle up her Unicorn and confront the dominating powers in quest for a sliver of joy. This is the buzz of a young confident generation of female Iranian artists who will not easily surrender their individuality and are not ready to be the sacrificial lamb.
The Majestic domes and fabulous landscapes are the playgrounds for the artist, where real populace are in daily combat with the restraining antiquated attitudes . The application of mixed media in this series are meant to represent her subconscious; sterile gauze covers wounds, mesh is restrictive, feathers are wings to fly with.

The function of three dimensional Origami forms that are flattened, carry the paintings to a three dimensional level, and the intricacy of these tangled shapes are indicative of the complexity of the characters of the society. The usage of neon lights, hidden in the back of some of the paintings, are probably reaffirmation of the ancient Persian belief in the power of light and hope.

The fluidity of the landscapes, the delicate lines and almost transparent figures, are all reflective of the delicate balance that the artist successfully creates. A world of her own, where the amphibious creatures are neither heroes nor victims. And perhaps this is another declaration of independence of the valiant Iranian females.

Solo show by Hamid Hemayatian

The Ambiguous and Distorted Historical Identity

In his paintings Hamid Hemayatian addresses the distorted linkage of historical narrative, a history that has deep roots in his own appreciation of it. Displaying historical motives seems to be an instrument to tell the story of artist’s personal feelings that he is not able to openly express. History referred to in his paintings with signs and motives, seems to be an excuse to create contradiction to reveal these subdued feelings. A feeling that within the context of distorted historical narrative, creates more ambiguity in artist’s motivation.
The paintings in their candor are vague and it appear as if the artist does not want to demystify this explicitly. The contradictions, predominantly, are a consequent of reactions to personal life of artist; or perhaps it’s a larger glance at social and political currents and that artist by inserting formal historical narrative, conceals his chief intention.

Solo show by Nasim Davari

Nasim Davari defies our aesthetic conventions. She continues her interest in hybrid forms, and elicits a sense of wonder in her mysterious creations. For the viewer it is the ultimate unknown, for artist it is her Personal Encyclopedia, her cosmology, her Ajayeb Nameh. A meta mythical fantasia in an unconscious world, an extraordinary plenitude of disorienting detail. All these vivid images and impossible juxtapositions and reveries are part of her fantasia. A world hard to adjust to but once first shock waves are absorbed and the viewer finds a new interpretation, then the bizarreness no longer appears all that unusual.
Following in footsteps of Abu Yahaya Zakariya Qazwini, the 13thcentury Persian intelligentsia; Geographer, Astronomer and extraordinary writer, who created the immensely popular “Marvels of Creatures and the Strange Things Existing”, our young artist pictures the perplexing creatures that in her case reside in her own subconscious.
Each painting is an independent work but they are all linked with threads and colors and composition, allowing the viewer to glide in this incredible world. It’s best not to try and explain but to float in the magic that she creates. Stepping away from these paintings the world is once again factual and mundane.

Abu Yahya Zakariya’ ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini (أبو یحیی زکریاء بن محمد القزویني) or Zakariya Qazvini (Persian: زکریا قزوینی) ‎(1203–1283) creator of titled “Marvels of Creatures and the Strange Things Existing” (عجائب المخلوقات وغرائب الموجودات).
Qazwini also wrote a futuristic proto-science fiction titled; Awaj bin Anfaq (أوج بن أنفاق), about a man who travelled to Earth from a distant planet. – Wikipedia

Solo show by Aliyar Rasti

Questioning notion of time, Aliyar Rasti will present six video art works that have been in making for almost two years. These works are a play between staged and documentary image-making; by documenting real time events in Long Takes and deluding the essence of time, he attempts to create loops. Continuous moving images that are trapped in time.

Born in 1988 and an ardent student of renowned film maker, Kamran Shirdel, using his considerable technical skills by applying long takes and invisible cuts , he successfully creates an illusion of continuity, perhaps his own personal reality.

For this exhibition he writes:

Occurrences do not begin but are a continuous eternity

In passage of time we arrive to a point of occurrence
and experience it.
Based on our experiences we categorize occurrences
and create borders.

Borders break down the polarity of Being
and credence repetition.

Solo exhibition by Mehdi Eshlaghi

This exhibition is the result of my wonderings in the place and time that I am born in. It is thirty odd years that every corner of this city is rooted in my memories but I still lose my way. The city that I have grown up in, that we have grown up together, without guiding signs and no one to show the way. A geographical point, between Caspian Sea and the Capital, A passageway that has absorbed millions of people, where the inhabitants remain migrants and everyone belongs to another place.
“Karaj, Long Shot” is the title of a series that despite first impressions is not a Non-place, each image in fact is a reflection of an exact place and time, where day has turned to night and night to day. And ultimately it’s not a painterly visualization of a lived experience in a city, but it is a review of the reality in a city that seems to be centuries old.

The series is a test between choices and reflections of ugliness and beauty, right and wrong, as well as a choice between things that one can not chose among. A visualization of the battle between day and night; the illusion of rightfulness of one and decay of the other one. The Image of a terra nullius, a place between hallucination and reality, that one has probably witnessed at time of birth. And it appears that till the end we may never fully trust the light nor fear the darkness as much as we ought to.

The result is eight paintings, half day and half night, that continue in to each other. Perhaps a not so definite answer to the eternal question: that as far as time immemorial, light is born from darkness and dawn from dusk. And it’s only color that will give them both meaning and life.

Mehdi Eshlaghi. Spring 2014

Solo exhibition by Siamak Filizadeh

I will rule you in a different manner, if I stay alive…
Attributed to Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah at the hour of his death

A vast city that slowly breaths in the dark depths of the earth. An ancient city, as old as the history of Human despotism. A high wall embraces the city. A wall that according to orders of The King, is decorated with patterns of love.
The King that every fifty years, at an exact date and hour is assassinated. The funeral ceremony that is held is more elaborate every time with the crumbling Tomb built even larger.
The next day The King rises from his tomb and goes to the palace, and his dominion is repeated with no alteration.
It is said that The King has made a pact with the angel of death, and there are others that believe that the citizens of the city are recalling his name in their hearts and ask God to return him to them.
The History of this city has been written once and for eternity, it has a circular motion , where the beginning is the end.
The Name of This City is “Under Ground”.

Solo exhibition by Allahyar Najafi

The story that you narrate is similar to installing colored glass on the windows of your house. Whatever is out there, whatever is moving, you get to see the colored glass and the darker or lighter shadows behind them. The story that you tell is not about the depth of life, it’s a recounting of passage of life. Your story is a patchwork of sub-stories, petty stories that not a lot of people care to tell.

The two and half dimensional imagery that are sold at the corner of the streets tell their own tale as well. One winks, the other ones jumps from the wolf to tiger and tiger to eagle, another shows the depth of forest. The final image is similar to what you get to see behind your colored windows. You see “what” you want to see. And there is no particular reason for it. And it’s not even necessary to explain it. It’s your story, the wink of the other, or the story of another one. A patchwork which is just like life. Each part exists for a reason. Very much like a fly that flutters to leave, but gets to change the air around us and it doesn’t even know it.

Solo show by Elika Hedayat

Elika Hedayat addresses aspects of exploitation, indifference, injustice and degradation of public life. She pictures the subaltern citizens and the essential duplicity necessary for their existence, duplicity that is evident in relationship of deceiver and deceived. The “chain” of bodies in her work makes it impossible to recognize who is or is not a victim.
The characters are determined to be noticed, they insist to be seen. The self satisfied populace with their absolute perseverance to Exist. Her work is decidedly disturbing and at the same time they are portrayals of parts of society, ranging from ridiculous to parody. Incomplete or mutilated bodies, bodies without locations. They stand without a beginning or end and evidently with no direction.
Elika Hedayat, with precision and unapologetically invites us to reflect on the hypocrisy and chaos that governs the streets of Tehran. These are snap shots of parts of our society, reminding us of the vulgarity, exhibitionism and under lying tensions of Petit powers.
It is an art that can be understood in the disorder of the reality that it is portraying. But it also shows us that as long as our progressive artists are willing to push the limits, by the mere fact of their existence they are the denial of the darkness. And there lies the strength of Iranian art and promise of a far better future.

Solo show by Arita Shahrzad

Ode To A Garden Carpet – By an unknown Sufi Poet (Circa 1500)
Here in this carpet lives an ever-lovely spring; Un-scorched by summer’s ardent flame, Safe too from autumn’s boisterous gales, Mid winter’s cruel ice and snow,’Tis gaily blooming still. Eyes hot-seared by desert glare find healing in its velvet shade. Splashing foundations and rippling pools, In cool retreats sore-wearied limbs restore, And tired hearts awake with joy once more. The way was cruel.
Baffled by monotony and mocked by phantoms delirious, Beset by stalking Death in guises manifold; The dreaded jinns, the beasts ferocious, The flaming heat and the exploding storms; Form all these perils here at last set free; In the Garden all find security.
Here the long-laboring Earth at last gives birth. From apparent death, a new and lovely world is born; Below the desert’s dusty floor, the jacinth imprisoned lies. The stony wilderness so bleak and bare, In ageless patience broods, aware of a life within, the promise of fertility and abundance. Ever longing for deliverance. The world at last reveals its destiny.
Can we not then capture and restore The loveliness that gave us hope, Still brightly mirrored on memory’s gliding waters Or snared in the poets’ invisible net, So wide, so fragile, Yet captor and conqueror of realities elusive?
Wrought in gold and azure, bright as carved metal. Dream-like foliage in sparking tones is caught, Or else, in sumptuous shades of glossy lacquer, Quiet but intense; in muffled browns and honey pure, Jasper cool and mellow cinnabar, That fairy land comes real again.
In sudden collisions find sweet embrace; In rhythms enchanting, with stately pace, Or rollicking speed; emerging, retreating, Reversing, in peaceful finality . Their conflicts reconcile, All in confederation blending Like a chorus in part-song gladly singing, In contrapuntal play rejoicing, Floating soft or wildly free; Yet anchored in eternity.

Solo show by Behdad Lahooti

“Zokhrof” is gold, it is the ideal beauty, adornment and elegance of things and yet, it connotes beautiful lies, much like adorned ravings or seductive talks. Thus, none of these pieces are adorned with gemstones and the series is called “Prong” a claw-shaped type of binding used for mounting gemstones to the jewelry item. All is thus ready for prong setting, yet there are no gems.
All sculptures of the series are devoid of both function and decoration and beautifully crafted prongs remain empty. Paradoxically things have lost their function, as well as their essence of beauty and have turned to a different thing and yet, through the process of refining have gained a seductive beauty of another order.
Excerpted from the catalogue of the exhibition, foreword by Barbad Golshiri