Nasim Davari

Opening on 21st July 2023
On view until 11th August 2023

Artists:
Mehdi Farhadian, Nasim Davari, Fatemeh Bahman Siyahmard, Koosha Moossavi, Maryam Farshad, Shaqayeq Ahmadian, Hamed Sahihi, Sara Tavana, Shahryar Gharaei, Maryam Farzadian, Marjian Hoshiar, Sanahin Babajanians, Sara Assareh, Shahrzad Argahinejad, Siamak Nasr, Leila Nouraei

The exhibition aims to bring together a divergent set of works. Representing, but also upsetting, the relationship between the artists and their connection to reality. Spheres that contain paradoxes and manage to juxtapose the ideal with the unattainable.
Breaking away from the harsh realities is a Persian Tradition manifested in our literature and arts, even in our timeless tradition of humor. The tough realism of every day is compensated by stepping into another dimension, cherishing illusions that replace the real world.
Here are exaggerated floating spaces – a placeless place- yet in connection with the spaces that remain outside them. Within these spaces, we are alive, free of borders and restrictions, away from the mundane, and separated from the gloom that engulfs our land. Able to float in an archipelago of plurality, as we are supposed to.
Nazila Noebashari

Opening on 29th April 2022
On view until 13th May 2022

In this series, I have tried to envision images of the Heroes of Shahnameh. And I have used their stories because stories shape their faces. And then, the faces narrate their story and maybe even the faith that was in store for them. And this is how these characters came to be.
Tahmores jailed the Divs and then gave them a quarter, and they taught him language and writing.
Zahhak was kissed by Devil on the shoulders, which became the nest of snakes and fed the youth’s brains. He also took Shahrnaz and Arnavaz from Jamshid and killed them.
Gordafaraid, who wore men’s armor and fought Sohrab.
Deev Sefid, who was black and had white hair and fought with Rostam.
Fereydon, nurtured by Bormayeh in his youth, took his cow-shaped mace to fight Zahhak and jailed him, where he remains till now.
Zaal was an albino, so Simorgh brought him up, and Rostam was his son.
Rostam was mighty and proud and had Rakhsh. Rakhsh was white and red and knew how to slaughter Dragons.
Sohrab was the son of Rostam, and his inheritance was his father’s pride and armband. He searched for his father and was killed by his hand.
Siyavash, who walked through fire and fire, turned cold to affirm his declaration of innocence on account of the false accusation of Soudabeh.
Esfandyar, who was Invulnerable and passed through seven Ordeals, fought with Rostam in a vain attempt to become the king.
Nasim Davari

Opening at Aaran Projects on August 14th 2020

Curtain II
Curated by Akram Ahamdi Tavana
Featuring works by:
Mortez Momayez-Samira Alikhanzadeh- Yasmin Sinai-Nasim Davari- Mahsa Kheirkhah-Homayoun Sirizi-Parisa Taghipour-Hamed Jaberha-Parham Peyvandi

This year marks the Millennium of the passing ofEpic Poet of Persians, Hakim Abul Ghasem Ferdowsi, whose Shahnameh, The Book of Kings, is credited with preserving our language and Persian history. To mark this occasion, we are exhibiting works by nine artists, with diverse practices, as a continuation of a project that started five years ago. On March 4th, 2016, we held an exhibition titled Shahnameh, The Perpetual Narrative: A survey of the Impact of Shahnameh on modern and contemporary art of Iran, curated by Akram Ahmadi Tavana. The catalog’s foreword was by Dr.Firuza Melville and included works of twenty-two artists.
Shahnameh’s influence remains strong in the poetry and visual arts of Iran. The selection for this exhibition is merely a portion of this enduring fascination with thousands of verses recalling the glory and splendor as well as failures and defeats of Persians, to quote Shahrokh Meskoob, “the history of the victory of defeat.”

Opening at Aaran Projects on 1st November 2019
On view until 18th November 2019

 In her adaptation of one of the best-known poems of Persia, The Conference of the Birds by Sufi Mystic poet Farid Uddin Attar, Nasim Davari evokes many layers of this masterpiece; exquisiteness, lyricisms, symbolism, and ingenuity. Using her magical brushes, she takes us on her own journey, along with the poet’s birds, to a higher otherworldly insight that reveals her wild and unequal imagination.
She tells the stories of Hoopoe, peacock, sparrow, dove, duck, nightingale, parrot, partridge, heron, owl, falcon…; thirty birds who set out on a hazardous journey to the faraway peaks of Mount Qaf, a mythical mountain that wraps around the earth, in search of their mysterious Simurgh, their king, to find out that they are the kings eventually.
The allegories in this set of paintings trigger memories deep within humans. While we may take flight together, the journey is different for each of us. The poem and these paintings touch on many issues of a postmodern life: individuality, coexistence, respect for values of self and others, the right to freedom, and the freedom of choice.
Through her wild imagination, Nasim Davari is able to transport us to her magical world. This is a study of self and others. A fanfare of fierce images and fantastical colors. She is a master painter and dreamer at her best. In this mystical and wild world artist speaks the language of birds, the divine language used by the initiated, the one used by Solomon to speak with birds so that those who can hear it will hear it.
She reminds us that the mundane world is passable and insignificant. It’s best not to try and explain this magical world but to float in the wonder she creates. Stepping away from these paintings, the world will become factual and mundane again.

Opening at Aaran Projects, on 22nd June 2018

Artists:
Mohamad Eskandari- Nasser Bakhshi- Asal Peyrovani- Nasim Davari- Faxteh Shamsian- Hadi Alijani- Meghdad Lorpour- Nogol Mazloumi- Roqayeh Najdi- Allahyar Najafi.

Memories both as an individual’s experience and as a collective one have a lasting effect on artists. ‎Memories are lived experiences of the artist with a direct impact on their psyche and soul. So it can be ‎said that what differentiates art from life is the immortality of art versus the transient quality of life.‎
In recent decades we have witnessed an increasing number of artists who drive inspiration from their ‎memories; bits and pieces of everyday life, and dreams and wishes. Censored memories, works of a ‎disclosing nature and picturing what artists have had to endure in their personal lives are more visible in ‎the art scene.‎
The essence of memories is closely linked with time. Henri Bergson argues that the true time, is the ‎time of our anguish and dejections, the time of regrets and impatience, and a time for our hopes and ‎thirst.‎
This exhibition attempts to display forgotten and remembered memories. A flash back, a retelling of a ‎story from past that has affected artists’ mind. Maybe a joyful memory of childhood, or an unfulfilled ‎love, or a flash back from a collective social memory which has been imprinted on the consciousness ‎of the artists.‎
Mina Feshangchi