Archive for category: Featured Artists

Born in 1972, Tehran, Iran
Education:

1996 Diploma of Iranian Calligraphy, Iranian Society of Calligraphy, Tehran, Iran
1995 Bachelors of Art in Graphics, Azad Art University, Tehran, Iran
1990 Secondary Studies Degree, Tehran, Iran
Solo Exhibitions:

2010 Liminal-Subliminal,October gallery,London,UK
2010 Controlled Chaos, The Third line,Dubai,UA
2010 Ride Like the Wind, Sultan Gallery, Kuwait
009 Doha series, The Third Line, Doha, Qatar
2008 My Freedom, Xerxes Gallery, London, UK
2008 Sleepless Nights, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE
2007 Beyond Words, La Fontaine Centre of Contemporary Art, Bahrain
2006 Golnaz Fathi, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE
2005 Solo Exhibition, Space SD, Beirut, Lebanon
2005 Un-Written, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE
2005 Virtual Painting Exhibition, ArtəEast, http://www.arteeast.org/
2005 Solo Exhibition, Espace SD, Beirut, Lebanon
2005 Solo Exhibition, Maison des Jeunes et de la Culture de Neuilly, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
2004 Solo Exhibition, Agence Le Carré Bleu, Paris, France
2004 Solo Exhibition, Galerie L’oeil du Huit, Paris, France
2004 Solo Exhibition, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2002 Solo Exhibition, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2000 Solo Exhibition, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2000 Solo Exhibition, Shahr-e-Ketab Bookstore of Niavaran, Tehran, Iran
1999 Solo Exhibition, Seyhoon Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1998 Solo Exhibition, Seyhoon Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Group Exhibitions:

2012 “ The elephant in the dark”, at the Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi, india
2011 written images: contemporary calligraphy from middle east, sundaram tagore
gallery, New York, USA
2011 The Art of Writing, Art Forum of Wiesbaden, Germany
2011 “Transvangarde” contemporary art from around the world, October gallery, London
2010 “Iran inside out” Farjam Collection, Dubai,UAE
2009 International Woman Artists’ Biennial, South Korea
2009 Iran Inside Out, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA
2009 Selseleh/Zelseleh: Movers & Shakers in Contemporary Iranian Art, Curated by Dr. Layla Diba, Leila
ghinia-Milani Heller Gallery, New York, USA
2008 Look what love has done to us, Cramer Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
2008 Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East, British Museum at DIFC, Curated by Venetia Porter, Dubai, UAE
2007 Cutting Edge: Spotlight on the avant-garde of emerging countries, Artcurial, Paris, France
2007 Collected Memories, ArtSpace Gallery, London, UK
2007 Within and Without, Nomoregrey Gallery, London, UK
2007 Group exhibition, Mah Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2007 Group exhibition, Unnamed Gallery, Amman, Jordan
2007 Wishes and Dreams, Meridian International Centre, Washington DC, USA
2007 ARTPARIS 07, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2007 Group exhibition, Niavaran Artistic Creation Foundation, Tehran, Iran
2006 Transit, Istanbul Improvisation Days, Istanbul, Turkey
2006 Group Exhibition, Don O’Melveny Gallery, Los Angles, USA
2006 Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East, The British Museum, London, UK
2006 9th International Open Exhibition, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, USA
2005 Group Exhibition, Espace SD, Beirut, Lebanon
2005 Group Exhibition, Mah Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2005 Group Exhibition, Italian School of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2004 Group Exhibition, Depot Square Gallery, Boston, USA
2004 Group Exhibition, Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York City, USA
2004 Group Exhibition, Fatima Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2004 Group Exhibition, Italian School of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2004 Group Exhibition, Royal Mirage Hotel, Dubai, UAE
2003 Group Exhibition, Williams Tower Gallery, Houston, USA
2003 6th Tehran Contemporary Painting Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran
2003 Group Exhibition, Italian School of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2003 Group Exhibition, The National Arts Club, New York, USA
2003 Group Exhibition, Lo Sguardo Di Luce, Padova, Italy
2003 New Art from Iran, Art Centre of Plano, Plano, Texas, USA
2003 New Art from Iran, Museum of Arts and Science, Daytona Beach, Florida, USA
2002 Group Exhibition, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2002 Group Exhibition, Don O’Melveny Gallery, Los Angles, USA
2002 New Art from Iran, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas, USA
2002 New Art from Iran, Queen Library Gallery, Jamaica, New York, USA
2001 Group Exhibition, La Maison du Livre, Brussels, Belgium
2001 Group Exhibition, Hôtel de Ville de Saint-Gilles, Saint-Gilles, Belgium
2001 Group Exhibition, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2001 Group Exhibition, Courtyard Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2001 Group Exhibition, Meridian International Centre, Washington DC, USA
2000 Group Exhibition, Azteca Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2000 Group Exhibition, Seyhoon Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1998 Group Exhibition, Seyhoon Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1997 1st Islamic World Calligraphy Festival, Museum of Contemporary art, Tehran, Iran
1997 Group Exhibition, Seyhoon Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1996 Calligraphy Exhibition, Reza Abbassi Museum, Tehran, Iran
1996 Calligraphy Exhibition, Seyhoon Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1995 Exhibition of Art University Students, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran
1994 Exhibition for Iranian Women Painters, Turkey
1993 2nd Painting and Miniature Exhibition, Tehran Exhibition Centre, Tehran, Iran
1993 2nd Tehran Contemporary Painting Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran

Grants and Awards:

2011 CHOSEN AS A YOUNG GLOBAL LEADER – ECONOMIC FORUM
2010 Sharjah Calligraphy Biennal, UAE,- selection Committee
2007 Residence scholarship, Fabrica, Treviso, Italy
2004 Residence Scholarship, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
2003 Residence Scholarship, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
1995 Best Woman Calligraphist in Ketabat style, Iranian Society of Calligraphy, Tehran, Iran
1993 Diploma of Honour in Graphics and Painting, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran

Works at Musuems and Collections:
Brighton & Hove Museum, England
Carnegie Mellon University in Doha, Qatar
slamic Art Museum, Malaysia
Asian Civilization’s Museum, Singapore
The British Museum, London
Devi art foundation, New Delhi,India
Farjam collection,Dubai

Name mentioned in Publications:

Heinz Kroehl, The Art of Writing, Bilder Werden Geschrieben, Germany
Iann Robertson, A New Art from Emerging Artists, United kingdom, 2011
Saeb Agner, Art oof the Midddle East, London, 2010
Contemporaryy Art in the Middle East, Art World, London, 2009
Different Sames, New Perspectives in Contemporary Iranian Art, London, 2009
Graphic Design from the Arab World and Persia, Berlin, 2008
Venetia Porter, Word into Art, Artists of the Modern Middle East, British Museum, London 2006

Born in 1972 in Tehran, Golnaz Fathi studied Graphic Design at Azad Art University (Tehran) and completed the calligraphic courses at Iranian Calligraphy Society. She was the first woman to win an award for Ketabat (a genre of calligraphy). Yet, Fathi’s practice has extended far beyond the traditional approach to calligraphy to develop an abstract style, which is based on the warm-up exercises (sia’h mashq) practiced by professional calligraphers before they begin their work.

Fathi is a self-taught painter: “The only period in my life that I had a teacher for painting was when I was nine, and at that time I fell in love with the form, and I had a dream that one day I would become a painter. For calligraphy, I am thankful to my father. He introduced it to me, as he believed that everyone should have good penmanship. His aim was to familiarize me with beautiful handwriting; he never knew it would lead me to practicing seven hours a day and becoming a professional calligrapher.”

Fathi’s works focus on visual expression; her words are indistinct, so there is no literal meaning to the calligraphic text. Instead these abstractions serve as visual stimuli for the observer, which she masterfully combines with painting. Such complex writing practices are sometimes styled “automatic writing” or called “asemic” which implies an absence of absolute meaning. However, as Gerard Hougton says: Fathi’s style, “should be considered as ‘polysemic.’ Each is densely inscribed with potential meanings and freighted with interpretive possibilities. The works come to mean something unique to each particular individual who views them.”

“I combined the disciplines, and transferred them onto my canvas, with my own taste and interpretation, without obeying the laws of traditional calligraphy. So, although I have had the traditional training, I allow myself complete creative freedom.”

Fathi’s intricate brushstrokes add new dimensions to the traditional notion of calligraphy, rather than focusing on the literal meaning of any words, she opens up a new world of symbols, which the viewer can openly interpret. “I am a trained calligrapher and my brush strokes know the structure of each letter. When it comes to my painting, it’s the brush that speaks, it’s like the improvisation — I let it go and it leads me wherever it needs to.”

Her use of white is like a meditation on silence; a space she leaves for the viewer to pause to take a breath. In contrast to this quiet space of white red is the color of energy, blue the color of domes of the mosques “especially in Esfahan” and black which is the most complete color for me because it has everything. . . it can express all my true feelings. It is never the color of sadness.” Sometimes later, she added yellow to her palette

Fathi has exhibited internationally since 1993 from Turkey and Dubai, US and many European countries to Jamaica. She has taken up a number of artist residency placements in Paris, Rome and London. In 1995, Fathi was awarded best Woman of the region.”

As part of the artist’s continued exploration, Fathi constantly reinvents her bag of painterly tricks. She has moved from a “layering and searching methodology” in her earlier works, to drastically editing her approach and resolving for a single strategically placed gesture — much like a highly controlled action painter. Her striking and engaging style has its foundations in the traditional style of Iranian calligraphy, but is not indebted to tradition. Instead Fathi strives to deviate from convention. “My artistic aim has been to transform calligraphy from words into forms. For me, it’s not the literal part that is important, but the form. I treat the letters as a form, I make them float or dance on my canvas. Being restricted by so many rules in traditional calligraphy made me break all the rules and treat the letters just the way I want to. The inspiration comes from my own culture. I am proud of my country’s very rich cultural heritage which in turn has greatly inspired me.”

Fathi engages with her physical environment and also with Iran’s vibrant historical archives to compliment and fuel her own practice. “Looking at the old lithography or handwritten books, gives me enough energy and inspiration to paint throughout the night. Every page of these books is a piece of art. I think that every aspect of life becomes the best teacher in itself and the best inspiration on its own. We are surrounded by so many stimuli that if we just used our eyes to see them, it could infuse us with limitless ideas. For me, every up and down in my life affects my work.”

Fathi’s success is a pleasant departure from the many stereotypes circulated about Iran and the population in the Western media.

Her exhibition titled My Freedom ((Xerxes Fine Art, London) a selection of her works from 2007-2008 features her trademark works with calligraphy and strong brushstrokes and vibrant colour. “I have done my work, and I have said the things that I wanted to say, albeit all in an abstract the fashion. For me, it is interesting to see people and to hear people as they interpret my work. The writings are in exact language, so not even Iranians can necessarily read the works, let alone Arabs, other Middle easterners, Asians, Europeans or Americans. I want people to be inspired in the same way that my Iranian culture and artistic have inspired me.”

Fathi’s exploration of calligraphy and the development of the abstract style emphasises the non-verbal aspects of the form, allowing the viewer the space to engage their imaginations, bringing their own interpretation to her work. “I want the audience to see the writings with pictorial eyes. I want my audience to see the dance of the letters and to allow their minds to take them as far on as they can go.”

In her Sleepless Nights (The Third Line Gallery, Dubai, 2008) she appears to have given up on the idea of getting it ‘just right’ with one motion and opted for a much more time based approach. The meditative aspects of her ‘scribbles’ are inherently based on the passing of time. Highly labour intensive, these works create textures, surfaces and tensions all through the simple and incessant repetition of lines. Framed by the boldness of the blacks and whites, the essence of the words and the letters dissolve into a strangely still frenzy of movement: an introverted and pensive form of communication that holds within it open-ended forms of emotion.

Continuing her practice of expressive calligraphic forms, Fathi constantly blurs the lines between the legible and illegible reaching a climax in her exhibition titled Controlled Chaos (The Third Line, 2010), a selection of light boxes and works on paper. She began working with light boxes in 2007 while seeking an alternative to her previous works on canvas. The fine lines are framed by the boldness of the black box as the glow of letters and forms merge into a strangely still frenzy of movement. The elements of color and form, movement and calm interweave into an imposing relationship of aesthetic balance and divided energy. The resulting works contain a raw beauty — a silver lining amongst the chaos.

This exhibition also sees her return to working on paper, a medium which offers a sense of vulnerability as the brushes stroke the surface of the blank paper.

“My painting is the medium I have chosen to express both my limitations and my freedom. Everything I feel is magnified and at the same time purified by the time I paint the last stroke. My brush is both my weapon and my shield.”

Articulate and outspoken, Fathi’s independence of spirit extends beyond her artistic practice. Much like her work, she is at once the embodiment of what Iranian women have always had to offer, and an effective challenge to some of the widely-held stereotypes about the region.

Sources:

Catalogues of her various exhibitions , particularly at Third Line Gallery Dubai, Sharon Parker’s article at Virtual Gallery, Paola Vallone and Gerard Houghton’s Redrawing the world.

The Knight of the “Iranian World”, Shahriyar Adl was born on 3 February 1944 in Tehran. His father, Ahmad Hossein Khan Adle was from Tabriz and his mother Homa Vali, with the honorary title Zia-ol-Moluk was from the city of Bastam.

After finishing the primary and the first half of the secondary school, he was sent to Paris, for to quote him: “it had become a custom in my family since 19th century.” As a freshman he simultaneously began to study in three fields of Architecture at Beaux Arts, Art History, Oriental or Ancient Archaeology at Louvre’s Collage and Historical Iranian Studies at Sorbonne. Later, in order “to decrease the load,” as he put it himself, he gave up studying Architecture. He acquired his doctorate degree in history and started to teach when 24. “My main career from the very beginning was doing research at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris… My other position was directorship of the International Editorial Committee of UNESCO’s History of Civilizations of Central Asia… If you ask others about me, depending on their field of interest, and how they have come across my work…some may say, Mr. Adle, is a Cartographer, or more precisely an aerial Cartographic engineer; some might say, he is a specialist in Old Tehran until Qajar era, another may say, he works on the history of photography and films…. Most of my articles are in French and English, but I also have several published articles in Farsi. In regard to executive positions I never had one. But, it happened that I often found myself involved in this kind of work as well…” And by executive posts, he meant, inscription, restoration and surveys of ancient art-works and historical sites in the Iranian World. 1

“The Iranian World (the world under the influence of Iranian Culture) is different from the Iranian Political Unit. The Iranian World extends far beyond the present Iran. In addition to Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, it even includes countries like India and the old Ottoman Empire, which were different political units. Iranians, i.e. the inhabitants of the present Iranian Political unit, exactly like the people of Afghanistan and Tajikistan, are branches of the monumental tree of Iranian Culture and not the center and its sole heir.” 2

According to Shahriyar Adl, “In contrast to what is generally believed, the declining course of the Iranian World began eight centuries ago. It was actually under the Reign of Seljug (a Turkish-Sunni Muslim Persianized dynasty ruling the Iranian World from 1016-1153) when Iran, the whole Orient and the World of Islam in general started to decline. Under the reign of Mongols (1206-1368), we had agricultural decay, in other words, the regression was economic in nature. It was not sociological or philosophical. Our socio-philosophical regression had begun before that; when we came to think and believe that we have found the answer to all & everything and, religious discourses as an example came to a standstill. We reached certainty 800 years ago, henceforth stopped asking questions and from the moment a society stops asking questions, it is doomed to decline and perish… Our last achievements were accomplished at the time of Omar Khayyam (1048-1131). We haven’t had any scientific progress since 800 years ago. What progress, in which field? We have reached such certitude that we no longer ask questions…Old Iranians used to ask questions, but that is the past now.”3

Among Adl’s costly efforts in the field of art history, in addition to his precious researches and writings on the Mongolian, Indian, Safavid and Qajar schools of miniature painting, was the vital role he played to bring back the rare illustrated copy of Ferdowsi’s epic, Epistle of Kings, known as Tahmasbi Shahnameh with the help of Iraj Afshar, which is one of the most precious illustrated copies carried out under the reign of Shah Tahmasb Safavid (1524-1576).

Tahmasebi’s Shahnameh

It is the fruit of 20 years of hard work of professional painters and calligraphers of the time. It was taken from Iran to the Ottoman Empire and from there to Paris, and from Paris to America and finally, back to Iran.4 He is also credited for his efforts in the return to Iran of stolen paintings from Golestan Palace in 1979.

Golestan Palace, Tehran, Iran.

It was then when he discovered the Qajar films now being processed by the Centre National du Cinéma (CNC) with the support of IHF. Among the films found there was also a film by the world’s first woman director, Alice Guy-Blanché called Faust. The discovery inspired him to carry out a research on the history of photography in Iran and together with Yahya Zoka wrote an article in French called. “Notes et documents sur la photographie iranienne et son histoire: I. Les premiers daguerréotypistes c. 1844–1854/1260–1270.” Studia Iranica 12, no. 2 (1983).He also wrote another article on this subject titled Acquaintance with cinema and the first steps of filming and fimmaking in Iran in Farsi which was published in Farairan Quarterly in 2000.

In reply to the question whether he had seen any photographs of nude women in that collection, he points out that, “Under the Qajar, there were special houses in a few districts of Tehran which served the rich and the princes…. That’s why they had prepared a photo album to make the choice easier for the clients.” He has apparently also written an article on this subject in French.5

In addition to his valuable articles on the history of photography and cinema in Iran, one of his last articles titled “Significations and symbolisms of colors in the Iranian World during the Islamic era,” where he deals with the subject why we have images (painting, sculpture and photography) in Iran, but not in western Islamic countries for example.6

With the foresight of an archeologist and art historian, Shahriyar Adl began collecting religious and political posters during and after the Islamic Revolution. “I saw how in a very short time span after the Pahlavi era, in less than two decades, there suddenly appeared an enormous volume of extraordinary images on religious themes intertwined with those of everyday life on the walls of public places, tea-houses, shops, and even houses extending to the remotest villages. Considering Pahlavi’s policies together with the ideological, political and intellectual movements of the era, this amazing widespread appearance of images all over the country in such a short period of time was absolutely incredible and hard to justify. The idea crossed my mind that they are among the most important documents for the future researchers to understand what a sudden tremendous explosion had happened in that historical period of this country and how and to what extent the whole society and culture was revolutionized.”7

His interests as mentioned in passing included a wide spectrum from archaeological studies and art history of the Islamic period of the Iranian World, from painting under Mongols in India and its connection with Iranian Miniature to the history of photography and film-making to earthenware found in Rayy, Kashan to various archaeological surveys in Great Khorasan, Rayy, Kumesh (Semnan), Damghan and Gorgan Plateau; to restoration of Bastam’s Ancient Tower, preparation of meticulous topographical plans of monuments such as the portico of the old mosque in Zuzan in the south of Khorasan, the nine-domed mosque in old Balkh (Afghanistan), one of the oldest mosques of the world (8th century). After the tragic earthquake in the historical region Bam (2003) he made tremendous efforts to protect the remaining remains of its ancient citadel (Arge-Bam 500 BC), making a careful study in his own way, and opposed to the customary method of excavations and destructive explorations carried out by the overwhelming majority of archaeologists of this unique architectural and artistic treasure and its inscription on UNESCO World Heritage.

Bastam Tower

Nine domed Mosque in the Old Balkh (Afghanestan)

“Our archaeologists, no matter what they say are overwhelmingly under the influence of the West. They don’t know that they approach Iranian archaeology exactly in the same manner of Westerners. Despite all their claims, they adopt a Western methodology.” Yet, it seems this deep overwhelming influence goes far beyond even his own imagination to question his own approach to Persepolis when he said: “Nothing in Persepolis is Iranian, but it is all Iranian. It is an Iranian and Achaemenidian complex. The cow’s head is Assyrian, the columns are Ionian, Fravahar, which is its divine symbol is Egyptian and its head is Assyrian, even our architecture is not of stone, but clay, khesht (unheated brick) and brick, while Persepolis is made of stones. Yet, its architecture on the whole is neither Hellenic, nor Assyrian, nor Egyptian, but Achaemenidian and Iranian.” Where does the source of Professor Adl’s information come from? If not from the historians, archaeologists and other specialists of the present “Western Empire?”8

But let us not take it hard on him, as it is the turn of Western Civilization to rule the world and one should not disregard the fact that Adl’s is specialized in the Islamic era and not Ancient Iran. “One of the main reasons I decided to study the Islamic era is that it was neglected field at that time. When nearly all Iranian and foreign archaeologists were focused on pre-Islamic eras, I concentrated on the post-Islamic period.”9 That is why most of his researches in the fields of history and art history concentrate on mid-Islamic period and the Safavid and Qajar eras in particular. He has written an invaluable series of articles on Mongolian, Indian and the Safavid schools of painting.

It was in mid-seventies when he joined the International Editorial Committee of UNESCO’s History of Civilizations of Central Asia and under the deep impact of the historical events taking place in Iran at that time (the Islamic revolution and the war with Iraq) he became deeply concerned and endeavored hard to register ancient historical Iranian monuments and sites on the world heritage list and save them in this way.

Naghsh-e Jahan Square, Esfahan, Iran

Persepolis, Shiraz, Iran

That is how he relates the story: “I remember how the inscription of Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Esfahan (Isfahan) turned out to be effective. Sadam’s missile hit Esfahan and ruined a part of Jameh Mosque… I remember I appointed myself as the representative of Iran and asked my friend Souren Melikian who was at that time a columnist of Saturday Herald Tribune to interview me as the representative of Iran (although officially I was not). The interview appeared on the first page of Herald Tribune with a photograph of Jameh mosque. In that interview I said Iraqis are bombarding the world’s heritage, an ancient mosque. After that there were no more threats to Esfahan.”10 In fact he managed to register Persepolis and the ancient ziggurat of Choghazanbil at the same time (1979).

Choghazanbil Ziggurat

Bam Citadel, Kerman, Iran

After the tragic earthquake in Bam (2003), Shahriyar Adl proceeded in a very intelligent way to succeed in registering the remaining parts of this ancient city with its famous Citadel, the largest adobe building in the world going back to 4-6th centuries BC. With 80 percent of the citadel being destroyed, the work of its inscription on the world heritage list seemed impossible due to some technical archaeological rules and regulations. Here is when the knight steps forward with an ingenious idea: with a history of 7000 years, the historic site has not only a very significant place for Zoroastrians and thus the Iranian World, but as its Arge (citadel) is also known as Solomon’s Throne, it is one of the most holy places for the Jewish people, Christians and Moslems. According to Adl: “based on mythologies, even Cyrus’ Tomb with an altar inside it is attributed to Solomon’s mother.”11

Professor Adl also was instrumental in the preparation of the second cycle of the World Heritage Periodic Reporting in the Asia and the Pacific region and contributed to the serial transnational World Heritage nomination of the Silk Roads.12

He also played a major role in the inscription of other monuments like Sheikh Safi al-din Khānegāh and Shrine Ensemble in Ardabil and Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex during 2004-2009.

One of his last public appearances was at an international conference organized by Iran Heritage Foundation and sponsored by the British Institute of Persian Studies, among others, in January 2015: From Persepolis to Esfahan: Safeguarding Cultural Heritage, where he gave a talk entitled ‘The Inscription of the First Iranian Sites on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Properties in the Revolutionary Iran of 1979 and its Aftermath.’13

Shahriyar Adl, was a tireless scholar. As the President of the Editorial Committee of the International Editorial Committee of UNESCO’s History of Civilizations of Central Asia, he described the publication of this series as an immense task, part of his wish to contribute to one of the main goals proclaimed in UNESCO’s Constitution, which aims ‘to develop and to increase the means of communication between peoples and to employ these means for the purposes of mutual understanding and a truer and more perfect knowledge of each other’s lives.’ He participated in the reflection on the cross-reading of UNESCO’s General and Regional Histories.13

Professor Adl’s Funeral from the National Museum, Tehran, Iran

The sudden death of Shahriyar Adl on 21 June 2015 in Paris shocked the whole Iranian World and deprived it of its singular Knight.

However, the good news is that in an interview with World Zoroastrian Council, his brother Kamran Adl has announced that their parents’ house in Tehran (where Shahriar was born and continued to live whenever in Iran) is hopefully to be turned into Shahriyar Adl’s Museum with his library and other collections now in his home in Paris eventually transferred to this future Museum.14

May that be so!

Farairan is honored to have had Professor Adl as one of Farairan Quarterly’s most respected consultants.

Awards:

1. Bronze Medal of CNRS, 1364

2. The Five Continents Medal of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1967

3. Aristotle’s Silver Medal, UNESCO, 1375

4. Ibn Sina’s Medal, UNESCO, 1382

5. UNESCO’s Sixtieth Anniversary Medal, 1384

6. CNRS’ Medal, 1388

Works:

Books: “Art and Society in the Iranian World,” a collection of articles on The History and Art of Iran from the beginning of Islamic conquest to the Qajar era.

“Tehran, the two-hundred years old Capital,” with collaboration of Bernard Orgard.

The History of Civilization of Central Asia, UNESCO, with collaboration of Irfan Habib (2003). Adle was the editor of the fifth volume of this collection.

Selected Articles:

Significations and symbolisms of colors in the Iranian World during the Islamic era, Actes des colloque international tenu a paris les 11 et 12 janvier 2013, Paris 2016.

Recherche sur le module et le trace corrcteur dans la Miniature Orientale,

See Chahryar Adle, “New Data on the Dawn of Mughal Painting and Calligraphy,” in Making of Indo-Persian Culture: Indian and French Studies, ed. Muzaffar Alam, Françoise ‘Nalini’ Delvoye and Marc Gaborieau (New Delhi, 2000)

Acquaintance with cinema and the first steps of filming and fimmaking in Iran, Farairan Quarterly, No.2 & 3, 2000.

Khorkheh, The Dawn of Iranian Scientific Archaeological Excavation, Farairan Quarterly, No.3 & 4, 2000.

Investigations et releves archeologique a Zuzan Dan le Khorasan, A la frontier Irano-Afghane (1988-1999). Foundation Max van Berchem, 1999.

Daguerreotype, Encyclopedia Iranica, vol.6, 1993

Les artistes nommés Dūst-Muḥammad au XVIe siècle,” Studia Iranica 22/2 (1993),

Chahryar Adle, “Les artistes nommés Dūst-Muḥammad au XVIe siècle,” Studia Iranica 22/2 (1993)

La Reconstitution Photogrammertrique de la Mosquee-Medresse de Zuzan, Foundation Max van Berchem, 1990

Entre Timourides, Mogols et Safavides – Notes sur un Châhnâmé de l’Atelier-Bibliothèque Royal d’Ologh Beg II à Caboul (873-907/1469-1502),” Art Islamique et Orientalisme – Vente aux Enchères Publiques (15 Juin 1990), Drouot-Richelieu (Paris, 1990), pp. 136-48, esp. p. 140.

Le Mausolee d’Abu Yazid Bastami, Dossiers Historie et archeologie, 1987

Adle, Chahryar, and Zokā Yahyā. “Notes et documents sur la photographie iranienne et son histoire: I. Les premiers daguerréotypistes c. 1844–1854/1260–1270.” Studia Iranica 12, no. 2 (1983): 249–80.

Le Minaret du Masjed-e jame de Semnan, Studia Iranica, 4 (1975)

Les Monuments due XIe siècle du Damqan, Studia Iranica, 15, 1972

Note Sur le Qabr-I Sahruh de Damghan, Le monde iranien et l’Islam, II, 1974.

Farairan Quarterly, Issues 5 and 6

There are alos three articles, Duust-Mohammad Mosawwer, Encyclopedia Iranica, Lost treasures at the Amiranshvilli Museum, Tibilisi and IHT: Souren Melikian 10/18/97 cited at www.spongobongo.com/her9982, but all are apparently removed.

Footnotes:

1. All quotations in this paragraph is taken the article Shahriyar Adl in his own words, Hamidreza Hosseini, www.jadidonline.com

2. An extract from an unpublished interview with Shahram Zare,, Bokhara, No.107, 2015.

3. ibid.

4. Hassan Habbibi, The story of how Tahmasebi’s Shahnameh was returned to Iran, www.khabaronline.ir

5. Mohammad Fadaee, “Shahriyar Adl’s Care and Zeal,” Bokhara.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid. For information about Adl’s new discoveries in Bam, see/Articles/

Ibid. See, Khoobchehr Keshavarzi, A New Approach to Persepolis (1392) and The Lost Citadel of Avesta (1393), Farairanonline.

8.

9. Shahriyar Adl in his own words, Hamidreza Hosseini, www.jadidonline.com

10. Ibid.

11. Shahriyar Adl, The History of inscription of Iranian historical sites, Soltanieh (in Zanjan), Persepolis and…

12. http://www.iranheritage.org/

13. http://whc.unesco.org/

14. Interview of the World Zoroastrian Council with Kamran Adl, http://w-z-c.com.

I appreciate beauty as a way to neutralize violence.

Shirin Neshat was born in Qazvin, Iran in 1957. She was sent to the United States to complete her education inn 1974, at the age of seventeen. After receiving a BA from the University of California at Berkeley in 1983, Neshat moved to New York, where she soon began working at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, an interdisciplinary alternative space in Manhattan. Though Neshat had studied art in college, her arrival in New York commenced a hiatus from art-making until 1993, when she made her first trip back to Iran.

Neshat’s earliest works were photographs, such as the Unveiling (1993) andWomen of Allah (1993–97) series, which explore notions of femininity in relation to the ruling politics and militancy in her homeland. Her subsequent video works departed dramatically from overtly political content or critique, in favor of more poetic imagery and narratives. Her first video installations—the trilogy comprising Turbulent (1998), Rapture (1999), and Fervor (2000)—utilize dual video screens to portray abstract oppositions based around gender and society, the individual and the group. While these works hint at the restrictive nature of Islamic laws regarding women, they deliberately open onto multiple readings, reaching instead toward universal conditions. Other videos, such as Soliloquy (1999), Possessed (2001), Pulse(2001), and Tooba (2002), along with the film Passage (2001), have expanded upon this formula, presenting similarly ambiguous narratives.

2008-Faezeh

Collaboration has played an important role throughout Neshat’s career; singer and composer Sussan Deyhim and cinematographer Ghassem Ebrahimian have contributed to many of her works, while Passage was a joint project with the composer Philip Glass. In 2003 the Screenwriters Laboratory of the Sundance Institute helped Neshat to develop and begin production on the feature film Mahdokht (2004), an adaptation of Shahrnush Parsipur’s novel Women Without Men. Since 2003 Neshat has continued to probe the central themes (religion, violence, madness, and gender) and characters in Women Without Men through photographic series like Zarin (2005) and the film Faezeh (2008).

Since her first solo exhibition, at Franklin Furnace in New York in 1993, Neshat has been featured in solo exhibitions in various countries of the world and has participated in several biennials and also international film festival, including Cannes film festival in 2008.
Her last exhibition, Games of Desire series took place in December 2012 in which she sheds light on the life of elderly Laotian women, living under a mitigation of tradition in a globalised world. The artist’s expression and her use of space puts the audience right in the heart of the couple’s interaction, compelling one to examine his own perceptions of Love, Sexuality and Age.

“Poetically speaking, I thought it could be beautiful to connect the plight of the women with the plight of the country. They are looking for the same thing: democracy, change, freedom. So it is an allegorical story.”

In an interview with Carol Becker, Neshat says: … a lot of people have accused me, even Iranian people, saying that I use the veil or other ideas as a way of exoticizing the subject or making purely aesthetic exercises and I’m saying well of course, I am an artist, aesthetic concerns are fundamental to what I do, but the question of orientalization is not my problem in that women in that part of the world actually wear the veil and the question of orientalization is a Western concern. For me, the mystery is built out of those two differences. Again, when Zarin was in the bathhouse, I made the set so that it looks like an Orientalist painting, partly because I thought how often do you have an anorexic woman who appears in an Orientalist picture? In other words, I was very conscious of both averting the ideas of stereotypes while playing with them, trying to deconstruct and construct the text and image at the same time.

2012 Shahnameh (Epistle of Kings)

I am a strong believer that I am the captain of my own ship, and as long as I’m clear about which way I’m going, I’ll take all the good and bad that comes with it. And I have to say, I’ve made mistakes in collaboration, or making work that is not so strong, and that’s OK, because the fundamental thing about the process of being an artist is failure. That you have to learn to accept that you are going to fail. It is similarly important for your critics, your audience, and your peers to understand that failure is part of growth. There is nothing wrong with failure. You fail or fall, and then you pick yourself up again. It’s that very process that is what really counts in the end.

Among the many awards Neshat has won are the First International Prize at the Venice Biennale (1999), the Grand Prix at the Kwangju Biennale (2000), the Visual Art Award from the Edinburgh International Film Festival (2000), the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography in New York (2002), the ZeroOne Award from the Universität der Künste Berlin (2003), the Hiroshima Freedom Prize from the Hiroshima City Museum of Art (2005), and the Lillian Gish Prize in New York (2006).

In 2010 Neshat was named Artist of the Decade by Huffington Post critic G. Roger Denson, for “the degree to which world events have more than met the artist in making her art chronically relevant to an increasingly global culture,” for reflecting “the ideological war being waged between Islam and the secular world over matters of gender, religion, and democracy,” and because “the impact of her work far transcends the realms of art in reflecting the most vital and far-reaching struggle to assert human rights.”

Sources:

http://www.ted.com/speakers/shirin_neshat.html
Britta Schmitz http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/nafas/articles/2005/neshat
Arthur C. Danto http://bombsite.com/issues/73/articles/2332

Born 1957, Qazvin, Iran

Lives in New York City

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2012

“The Book of Kings,” Gladstone Gallery, New York

2011

“Women Without Men,” Palazzo Reale, Milan

“Shirin Neshat: Soliloquy,” Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, England

2010

“Shirin Neshat,” La Fabrica Galeria, Madrid, Spain

2009

“Games of Desire,” Gladstone Gallery, Brussels

“Games of Desire,” Galerie Jerome de Noirmont, Paris

Women Without Men,” National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens

“Shirin Neshat: Turbulent,” Galleri Faurschou, Copenhagen

2008
“Shirin Neshat,” Gladstone Gallery, New York

“Shirin Neshat: Women Without Men,” Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

“Shirin Neshat: New Works,” Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris

“Women Without Men,” ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark; Gallery Faurschou, Beijing

“Shirin Neshat,” National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjevik

“Women Without Men,” Galleri Faurschou, Beijing, China

2007

Shirin Neshat,” Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon, Portuga

2006

“Shirin Neshat,” Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland

”Shirin Neshat: The Last Word,” Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

“Shirin Neshat,” Stedelijk Museum CS, Amsterdam, NL

“Shirin Neshat,” Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam, NL

2005

“Zarin,” Gladstone Gallery, New York

Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum Für Gengewart, Berlin

Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Leon, Spain

Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan

2004

“Shirin Neshat,” Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand

2003

“Tooba” Asia Society Museum, New York

Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon, Portuga

Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam

Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City

2002

Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy

Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw

Banco di Brasil, Rio de Janeiro

Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark

“Passage,” Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, PA

2001

Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montreal,; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; Miami Art Museum

Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

Patrick Painter, Santa Monica, CA

Barbara Gladstone Gallery , New York

Kanazawa Contemporary Art Museum, Kanazawa, Japan

Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg

2000

Serpentine Gallery, London

Pitti Discovery, Florence, Italy

Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria

Lia Rumma, Milan, Italy

Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX

Matrix, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA

Wexner Center, Columbus, OH

1999

Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden

Art Institute of Chicago

Patrick Painter Gallery, Los Angeles

D’Amelio Terras, New York

Galerie Jerôme de Noirmont, Paris

Henie Onstad Artsentre, Oslo, Norway

Tensta Konsthall, Spanga, Sweden

1998

Tate Gallery, London, England

Whitney Museum of American Art, Philip Morris Branch, New York

Maison Européene de la Photographie, Paris

Thomas Rehbein Gallery, Köln

1997

Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovania

Annina Nosei Gallery , New York

Lumen Travo, Amsterdam, Holland

Artspeak, Vancouver, Canada

1996

Centre d’Art Contemporain Kunsthalle, Fribourg, Switzerland

Marco Noire Contemporary Arts, Turin, Italy

Lucio Amelio Gallery, Naples, Italy

Haines Gallery, San Francisco

1995

Annina Nosei Gallery , New York

1993

Franklin Furnace , New York

Selected Group Exhibitions

2012

“Every Exit is an Entrance: 30 Years of Exit Art,” Exit Art, New York

“Half of the Sky: Visualized,” Contmemporary Art Galleries, University of Connecticut

2011

“Beyond Conventions: Reimagining Human Rights in a Time of Change,” Ford Foundation, New York

“In The Name of the Artists,” American Contemporary Art from the Astrup Fearnley Collection, Bienal Pavilion, São Paulo

“TRA. Edge of Becoming,” Palazzo Fortuny, Venice

“I Know Something About Love,” curated by Ziba Ardalan, Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London

2010

“Calder to Warhol: Introducing the Fisher Collection,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

“ARTE Y POLITICA : CONFLICTOS Y DISYUNTIVAS,” Museo de Arte de Culiacán, Culiacán

“Exposure: Photos from the Vault,” Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO

“Disquieted,” Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR

“Diabolique,” Galierie de l’Uquam, Montreal

2009

“Bad Habits,” Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

“BAROCK,” MADRE Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples

“Being in the World: Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection,” Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami

“Shirin Neshat e Shoja Azari,” Noire Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy

“The Female Gaze: Women Look at Women,” Cheim and Read, New York

“Iran Inside Out,” Chelsea Art Museum, New York

“Photographic Power and Violence, Disease, and Death Photographed,” Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland

“Typical, Clichees of Jews and Others,” Spertus Museum, Chicago; Jewish Museum of Vienna, Vienna

2008

“Prospect..1: New Orleans International Biennial” New Orleans

“Me Ophelia,” The Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherland

“Stereotypes,” The Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany; Spertus Museum, Chicago; The Jewish Museum, Vienna

“Wanderers in Contemporary Video Art,” Museo Civico, Commune di Siena, Siena, Italy

“Paixóns Privadas, Visións Públicas Collections D.O. Galicia,” Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo, Vigo, Spain

2007

“Foto.Kunst,” Essl Museum, Vienna

“Kunst Film Biennale,” Köln

“Ten Years,” Emily Tsingou Gallery, London

“So Close / So Far Away,” BE-Part Platform voor actuele kunst, Waregem

“Weltempfänger,” Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg

“After The Revolution: Women Who Transformed Contemporary Art,” Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Long Island City, New York

Programs, Long Island City, New York

“Border-Crossing Exercises,” Galleri Nord Norge, Norway

“Not for Sale,” P.S.1, New York

“Lights Camera Action: Artist’s Film for the Cinema,” Whitney, New York

2006

“Kapital,” Kent Gallery, New York

“Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection,” Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Helsinki

“A Selected State,” emily Tsingou gallery, London, England

“Reverence,” Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, New York

2005

“Translation,” Palais de Tokyo, Paris

“Remapped Realities,” Eyebeam, New York

“Some Stories,” Kunsthalle Vienna, Austria

“Beauty, House of World Culture, Berlin

“Important, Modern and Contemporary Art,” Gary Nader, Miami, Florida

“Figure It Out,” Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, New York

2004

“Non Toccare La Donna Bianca:, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo per l’Arte,Turin

Santa Fe Art Institute, New Mexico

“In Bed”, Toyota Art Museum, Japan

“From Bonifatius to Beuys,” Kunsthalle Erfurt, Germany

“Monument to Now,” Deste Foundation, Athens

Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran

“The Parallell World of Marrakech,” Lille 2004, France

“Transculture,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens

”Far Near Distance,” House of World Culture, Berlin

“Masterpieces from the museum of Contemporary Art”, Chicago; Villa Manin Center of Contemporary Art, Udine, Italy

2003

“Bill Viola and Shirin Neshat,” The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

“Moving Pictures,” Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain

“Fantasies of the Harem and the New Sherezades,” Centre de Cultura Contemporania, Barcelona

“Elsewhere,” UCLA Fowler Museum, Los Angeles

“The Natural Cosmos,” Staadtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

“Imagining Prometheus,” Palazzo della Ragione, Milan

“Nouredine Amir,” ModeMuseum, Antwerp, Belgium

“Films of the Iranian Diaspora,” Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago

“Armour:The Fortification of Man,” Foundation Fort Asperen, Acquoy, The Netherlands

“ICP Triennial of Photography and Video,: International Center of Photography, New York

2002

“Diversions,” Contemporary Art Museum, Baltimore

“Synopsis II-Theologies,” The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens

“Alter Ego,” Jean-Gabriel Mitterand Galerie, Paris

“Recent Acquisitions,” Solomon R. Guggeheim Museum of Art, New York

The Beauty of the Evil,” De Zonnehof, Amersfoort, The Netherlands; Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany

“Picturing Ourselves,” Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA

“Moving Pictures,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art, New York

“Visions from America,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

“Iconos Metropolitanos,” Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

“New Art,” Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran

“Real Life,” Tate St. Ives, Cornwall, England

2001

“Galerie Farschou, 1986-2001,” Galeri Farschou, Copenhagen, Denmark

“Fervor,” Tensta Konsthall, Spanga, Sweden

“Black + White,” Blains Fine Art, London

“New Acquisitions from the Dakis Joannou Collection,” Deste Foundation, Centre for Contemporary Art, Athens

Beyeler Foundation, Basel, Switzerland

Biennial de Valencia, Valencia, Spain

French Institut, Rabbat, Morocco

Croatian Photographic Union, Croatia

“Arte Contemporaneo Internacional,” Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City

“The Beauty of the Evil,” Armando Museum, Amsterdam

2000

“Corpo Chimico,” Cá di Fra, Milan, Italy

“Photography Now: An International Survey of Contemporary Photography,”

Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, Lousiiana

“State of the Art: Recent Gifts and Acquisitions,” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

“Erresitentziak/Resistencias,” Koldo Mitxelena, Donostia-San Sebastian

The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh

Lyon Biennial, Lyon, France

“La Beauté in Avignon,” Avignon, France

“Continental Shift,” Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany

Biennale of Sydney, Australia

Kwangju Biennale, Kwangju, Korea

Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

“Outbound. Passages from the 90’s,” Contemporary Art Museum, Houston

“Greater New York. New Art in New York Now,” PS1, New York

“Contact: A 90’s Journal,” Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany

“THE END: An Independent Vision of Contemporary Culture, 1982-2000,” Exit Art, New York

1999

“Heaven: An Exhibition That Will Break Your Heart,” Tate Gallery Liverpool, England

“Zeitwenden: Rückblick und Ausblick,” Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany

“Shirin Neshat: Rapture/ Pipilotti Rist: Sip My Ocean,” The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia

Voiceovers,” Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

“Project 70: Shirin Neshat, Simon Patterson, Xu Bing,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

“My Culture? My Self. Lee Friedlander, Gerhard Richter, Christian Boltanski, Shirin Neshat,” Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto, Ontario

“La Biennale di Venezia,” Venice, Italy

“Exploding Cinema,” Rotterdam Film Festival, Boijman Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

“Unfinished History” by Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

“Video Cultures” ZKM/Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany

“La Ville, Le Jardin, la Memoire” Villa Medici, Rome, Italy

“Global Art Rheinland 2000,” Ludwig Museum, Köln, Germany

“SITE SANTA FE: Looking For A Place,” Santa Fe

“Zeitwenden-outlook into the next millennium,” Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany

“Heavenly Figure,” Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany

1998

“Unfinished History” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

“In The Detail” Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich, Germany

“7 th Summer of Photography,” Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, Belgium

“Mar de Fondo” Roman Theatre of Sagunto, Valencia, Spain

“Vanessa Beecroft & Shirin Neshat,” Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy

“Maschile Femminile e oltre” Palazzo Branciforte, Palermo, Italy

“Mostrato” Pescara, Italy

“ECHOLOT” Museum Fridercianum Kassel, Germany

“Transatlantico” Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Canary Islands, Spain

“A Noir,” Triennale di Milano, Italy

“Interference,” Comunidad de Madrid, Spain

“Genders and Nations: Reflections on Women in Revolution” Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

“5 Th International Istanbul Biennale: On Life, Beauty, Translations and OtherDifficulties” Istanbul, Turkey

“2 nd Johannesburg Biennale 1997, Trade Routes: History and Geography” Johannesburg, South Africa

“Unbeschreiblich Weiblich” Fotomanifestatie Noorderlicht, Groningen, Holland

1997

“Triple X: Contemporary Investigating Arts,” International Art Festival, Amsterdam, Holland

“Der Rest der Welt” Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin, Germany

“International Art Festival City of Medellin,” Medellin, Columbia

“Foto text/text foto” Museum of Modern Art, Bolzano, Italy

Frankfurt Kunstverein, Germany

“Le Masque et le Miroir” Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

“Jurassic Technologies Revenant, Sydney Biennial” Australia

“Le Masque et le Miroir” Rencontres

Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France

“Inclusion/Exclusion” Kunstlerhaus, Graz, Austria

“Radical Images: Austrian Triennal of Photography 1996,” Neue Galerie; Kunstlerhause, Graz, Austria

Kunsthalle Szombathely , Hungary

“Interzones” Kunstforeningen Gl. Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark

Uppsala Konstmuseum, Uppsala, Sweden

“Ghostwriter” (a project in collaboration with Jamielie Hassan), Mercer Union, Toronto,Ontario

“Group Exhibition,” Haines Gallery, San Francisco

“Auf Den Leib” Kunsthalle, Vienna

“Gallery Artists,” Galerie Lumen Travo, Amsterdam, Holland

“Imaginary Beings” Exit Art, New York

Video Installation commissioned by Creative Time for Anchorage, Brooklyn Bridge, New York

1995

“Orientation,” USA participation, Istanbul Biennial 95, Turkey

“Transculture” Venice Biennial 95, Venice

Contemporary Art Museum, Okayama, Japan

“Campo ‘95” Venice Biennial 95, Italy

Fondazione Sandretto Rebaudengo Per L’Arte, Turin, Italy

“It’s How You Play the Game” Exit Art, New York

1994

“Three New Photographers,” Haines Gallery, San Francisco

“Revolving Histories,” SF Camerawork, San Francisco

“Selection from the Artists File” Artists Space, New York

Labyrinth of Exile: Recent Works by Four Contemporary Iranian Artists,” Fowler

Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles

“Fever,” Wexner Center, Columbus, Ohio

“Beyond the Borders: Art By Recent Immigrants,”The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx

1993

“The Office: History, Fantasy and Irregular Protocols,” site-specific installations in an abandoned Wall Street office building, organized by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in New York

1990

“Fever” Exit Art Gallery, New York

Multi Media Performance

2003

Logic of the Birds,” Ortigia Festival, Syracuse, Siclily, July 25 – 27

2002

“Logic of the Birds,” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN , June 20-23

“Logic of the Birds,” Lincoln Center, New York, July 12-13

“Logic of the Birds,” ArtAngel, London, November 7-17

2001

Logic of the Birds (Phase One),” The Kitchen, New York

Film Screenings

2010

“ Women Without Men,” Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

“ Women Without Men,” Sundance Film Festival, Utah

“Women Without Men,” International Rotterdam Film Festival, Netherlands

“Women Without Men,” New Directors/New Films, New York

2009

Premier of “Women Without Men” at the 66 th Venice Film Festival, Italy

“Women Without Men,” London Film Festival, London, England

“Women Without Men,” Viennale Film Festival, Vienna, Austria

“Women Without Men,” KunstFilm Biennale, Cologne

“Women Without Men,” Dubai International Film Festival, Dubai

2008

18th Annual Celebration of Iranian Cinema, UCLA Film Archive, California

2007

KunstFilm Biennale, Cologne

International Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale, South Korea

Istanbul Film Festival, Istanbul

2006

Florida Golf Coast University

Art Tower-Mito, Japan

Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany

Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno-CAAM, Spain

Creative Time Inc, New York

2003

Sundance Film Festival, Salt Lake City

Smithsonian Institution, Freer and Sackler Galleries, Washington D.C.

UCLA Film and Television Archive, Los Angeles

Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago

Tribeca Film Festival, New York

Athens International Film Festival

Edinburgh International Film festival

Kunst Film Biennale, Cologne

2002

Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland

Dans Le Cadre Du Festival International De Films De Fribourg, Centre D’Art Contemporain Kunsthalle, Fribourg, France

“Outer & Inner Space: A Video Exhibition in Three Parts/Part Two,” Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

Forum des Images, Paris

Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Athens, Greece

Philadelphia Museum of Art

2001

Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago

Francisco Film Festival, San Francisco, CA

London Iranian Film Festival, London

Virginia Film Festival, Charlottesville, VA

Pacific Film Archive Festival, Oakland, CA

Love and Talisman

Born in 1969 in Iran and immigrated to the United States in 1983.

EDUCATION:
2004 MFA Imaging and Digital Art UMBC, MD
1999 MFA Painting Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
1993 BA Painting University of Maryland, College Park, MD

GRANTS & AWARDS:
2011 Jameel Prize, V&A Museum, London, UK Shortlist
2011 Franz and Virginia Bader Fund, Washington D.C.
2010 Individual Artist Grant, Maryland State Arts Council
009 Mary Sawyers Baker Award, William G. Baker Jr. Memorial Fund
2008 Individual Artist Grant, Maryland State Arts Council

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2011 Hadieh Shafie, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (Upcoming)
2010 Some Kind of Love, Jean Efron Art Consultants, Washington D.C. (Current)
2009 Paper Pattern Color Culture, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2008 Exodus, The Carriage House, Baltimore, MD
2004 The Little Black Fishes, School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MD
Spin, MFA Exhibition, Center for Visual Art and Culture, UMBC, Baltimore, MD
2000 Taste, UMBC, Baltimore, MD
1997 Speak + Sound + Touch, East Hall Galleries, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
1996 September Promises, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Eshgeh, Higgins Hall Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2011 Hadieh Shafie, XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE (Upcoming)
2010 Ritual: Form, Script and Gesture, A Pop Up Project, Amy Morton Fine Art, Washington DC
Crazy Beautiful II, Kenise Barnes Fine Arts, Larchmont, NY
More of the best is yet to come, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Sondheim Prize, Semi‐Finalist Exhibition, MICA, Baltimore, MD
MICA Sondheim Prize and Baker Award Honorees, Casewerks Baltimore, MD
I(RAN) Home (In America), CoCA, Seattle, WA
Gallery Artists Group Show, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2009 Hidden Wounds, Paper Bullets: Iranian Contemporary Art, Grant Arts Central, California State University at Fullerton CA
I (RAN) Home (In America), The Fridge DC, Washington D.C.
Cross‐Currents: Trends in Contemporary Art Media, Sarah Silberman Gallery, MontgomeryCollege, MD
Protocol: Syntax / Semantics, Gallery 4, Baltimore, MD
Baker Artist Awards Exhibition, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Women’s Work, Civilian Art Place, Washington D.C.
Bastakiya Art Fair, Saatchi, Dubai, UAE
i‐Annual Symposium on Media Arts, Delaware College, Delaware, PA
Hand to Frame/Surface to Lens, MSAC Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Penned, Traveling Exhibition, Lump Gallery/Projects, Raleigh, NC
2008 Drawing Fusion, CCBC, Catonsville, MD
Hidden and Revealed, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD
Full Circle, Rosenberg Gallery, Goucher College, Baltimore, MD
Penned, Pinkard Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2007 Iconology, Red Saw Gallery, Newark, New Jersey
Changing Climate Changing Colors, Abrons Art Center, New York, NY
2006 The Notebook, Current Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Displacement, Pyramid Atlantic, Silver Spring, MD
2004 Solace: Searching for Meaning in a Time of Distress, Middle East Institute, Washington, D.C.
2003 Under The Table and Dreaming, Raleigh Studios, Baltimore, MD
2002 Solace, Open Studio Exhibition, Raleigh Studios, Baltimore, MD
2000 Thirty‐Feet of Wisdom, University of Maryland Baltimore County, MD
1999 30 x 30, Cinque Gallery, New York, NY
Summer Show, Center for Iranian Modern Art, New York, NY
998 Art of the Book, Pratt Institute Library, Brooklyn, NY
1997 Now and Here, Steuben Gallery West, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
1996 Women, East Galleries, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
1995 Art Made in Exile: Iranian Artists, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Contemporary Iranian Artists, Avicenna Center, Vienna, VA

ARTIST TALKS:
2010 Some Kind of Love, Jean Efron Art Consultants, Washington D.C.
2009 Baker Artist Awards, The Hamilton Club, Baltimore, MD
Women’s Work, Civilian Art Place, Washington D.C.
2008 Negotiating Times: An Exploration of Culture, Politics and Identity by Artists from Pakistan,
Iran and Tunisia, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, New York, NY
007 Emergence, Current Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2006 Displacement, Provisions Library, Washington, D.C.
2004 Solace: Searching for Meaning in a Time of Distress, Middle East Institute,
ashington D.C.
Spin, RTKL Public Lecturer Center for Visual Arts and Culture, UMBC, Baltimore, MD
2004 The Little Black Fishes, School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MD
2004 Children’s Workshop: The Little Black Fishes, School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MD

PUBLICATIONS:
“Issue #88,” New American Paintings, The Open Studio Press, Boston, MA, 2010
“Emergence,” Exhibition catalogue, Current Gallery, Baltimore, MD, 2007
“Siouxsie,” Link Journal on the Arts, Issue No. 10, Baltimore, MD, 2004

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Emily Warner, “paperpatterncolorculture” The Brooklyn Rail, (November, 2009)
Richard Chang, “Iranian art at Grand Central in Santa Ana”, The Orange County Register (November 20, 2009)Richard Chang, “Iranian art offers window to changing world”, The Orange County Register (November 16, 2009)Lavanya Ramanathan, Gallery opening of the week: “I RAN Home at the Fridge” in SoutheastWashington, Washington Post, (November 13, 2009)Maura Judkis, “ I RAN Home (in America)”, Washington City Paper, (November 11, 2009)
Stephanie Merry, “ Art I Ran Home (In America)”, Washington Post (November 4, 2009)
Mike Unger, “Baker Artist Award Winners at BMA” About.com, (May 26,2009)
Michael O’Sullivan, “In Baltimore, Artists Win a Vote of confidence” Washington Post, (May 22, 2009)
Victoria Donohoe, “New Media Exhibit” The Philadelphia Inquirer, (April 10, 2009)
Edward Gunts, “Baker Artist Awards Names Winners” The Baltimore Sun, (March 25, 2009)
Bret McCabe, “Moving Pictures Exhibition Exploring Transforming Images Also Recasts
Their Emotive Potential” Baltimore City Paper, (February 25, 2009)
Ellyn Weiss, “Wright, Shafie, Cabazon and Tan at Civilian Art Projects” eweissart.com
Robert Jason Fagan, “Hand to Frame/Surface to Lens” Exhibition Catalogue, (February, 2009)
Robert Jason Fagan, “Drawing Fusion” Exhibition Catalogue, (October, 2008)
Mike Guiliano, “MAP‐ing Out How We Figure In” Baltimore City Paper, (August 14, 2008)
Bret McCabe, “Visions of Excess: Information Overload Trumps Demur Artfulness”
Baltimore City Paper, (August 20, 2008)
Kate Noonan, “Full Circle” An Artscape Exhibition, Baltimore City Paper (July 23, 2008)
Alex, “Full Circle” Then There Where Ten Tigers, (July, 10, 2008)
Hadi Gharabaghi, “Where is the friend’s house?” Iranian.com (October 19, 2005)
“Iranian Artist in Exile” Payvand Iran News, Washington, D.C. (July 30, 2004)
Associated Press, “Iranian‐American Artists Focus on Exile” AP Washington, D.C. (July 29, 2004)
Carl Hartman, “The Poignancy and Pain of Exile” AP Washington, D.C. (August 8, 2004)

Works in Collections:
Bank of America, Corporation Collection, North Carolina
Art in Embassies, Public Collection, Dubai, UAE
Private Corporation Collection, London, UK
Private Corporation Collection, Hong Kong

After completing her BA in Painting at the University of Maryland, Shafie moved to New York in 1993 to live and to study painting at Pratt Institute, where she graduated in 1999 with an MFA in painting. Shafie presented her first video installation titled Spin in 1995 and a year later she showcased her thesis titled September Promises which was like weaving the Farsi word eshgh (love) in the shape of a scroll. Shafie’s work to date is the continuation of the same principles of repetition and the exploration.

In her statement she says in this regard:

A constant element of my work is the significance of repetition, process and time. In works comprised of paper scrolls, individual strips of paper have been marked with the word “eshghe,” both hand-written and printed in Farsi. While the most direct translation of “eshghe” to English is “love” its expressive power is “passion.” I chose this word because it encompasses my longing and search for acceptance and understanding. The repetition of text, in particular the word “eshghe,” is a recurring element in much of my work of the last decade. Using concentric forms of text and material I seek to magnify its meaning. Writing by hand on strips of paper, I repeat what is printed, filling in gaps to emphasize a particular, existing form. For each work I decide on a limited color palette. As I roll the paper the colors on the edges of the strips align, creating bands of alternating hue that stand along side one another, while at once, seeming to merge into new color formations which are often delightful surprises. I may decide to repeat the color sequence but I try to encourage myself to let go so new combinations may arise. Placing each scroll side by side, I make decisions about color and composition at every step of the work and so the process of making progresses much like a painting or drawing. What interests me is the tension between control and spontaneity that emerges at every step. During the repetitive process of adding paper strips to create individual scrolls, text and symbols are hidden within these concentric rings of material as the scroll grows outward. There are compositions of printed and handwritten text sealed in the work that sometimes I wish I could see again, that are now relinquished to the eternal turning within the work.

Concentric forms of text and material also take inspiration from the Sama dance of the whirling dervishes with the resulting work as the physical expression of my awe.

Shafie left New York in 1999 after accepting a fellowship at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County and began to focus on performance and video art. She completed her second MFA degree in Fine Arts in Digital Media in 2004.

Shafie’s design sensibility and intuitive grasp of color theory are strong. As geometric abstraction alone, her scroll pieces make dynamite eye candy.

But it is the work’s conceptual underpinning that gives it its real charge. By Shafie’s own admission, there’s a certain obsessive-compulsiveness to their making, revealed in her numerical titles (e.g., “11800”), referring to the number of paper strips that went into making each one.

Though Shafie’s earliest scroll pieces contained paper so tightly coiled that it was impossible to read what was written on it, her most recent works are less . . . hermetic. Though the artist typically begins a scroll by wrapping the paper around a knitting needle — making it impossible to read what’s inside it — in several of her latest works she has used dowels as thick as shower curtain rods, creating a more interesting and varied rhythm of tight and loose circles. Those loose circles, where you can finally see a little bit of the writing that’s inside them, make her art more of an open book.

The repetition of a key like shape can be found in varying degrees throughout Hadieh Shafie’s work. The image of a key is often symbolic for unlocking the secrets to something great, possibly unlocking the mystery of Hadieh Shafie’s motifs. This might be partially true, however, Shafie’s main reason for incorporating this particular emblem relates to the fact that “eshghe” in script resembles that of a skeleton key. In certain paintings, such as “Radiate In” and “Radiate Out”, Shafie illustrates this symbol so many times it becomes an abstract pattern, adding a rhythmic quality to her work. Hadieh Shafie likens her repetitive process to a ritualistic performance, such as prayer, made tangible.

Hadieh Shafie’s fascination with the sheer method of making art stems from her Iranian heritage. The elements of repetition and time are ingrained in Islamic art and craft as well as the Sama dance of the whirling dervishes (also echoed in the artist’s use of concentric shapes). Shafie’s palette is as breathtaking as her intricate designs. The vibrant hues of orange and pink that comprise “Still of the Turn” and the rich maroon used in “Keep on Turning” are quite spellbinding. And the interesting facets of Hadieh Shafie’s work are seemingly endless. For instance, the number of paper scrolls contained in an individual painting makes up the title of the piece. For example, “1890” contains that precise amount of cylindrical rings of paper.

Shafie’s work has been included in numerous exhibitions and she has been the recipient of grants from the Kress Foundation, RTKL and MSAC Individual Artist Grant (2010 & 2008) and the Mary Sawyers Baker awards from the William G. Baker Jr. Memorial Fund (2009) & Franz and Virginia Bader Fund (2011). Most recently Shafie was shortlisted for the Jameel Prize (2011).

May her scroll of love and sama continue…

Sources:
Michael O’Sullivan Art review: Hadieh Shafie at Morton Fine Art, 2011
Tara Heuser, The Sweet Turning of the Page, 2009
mortonfineart@gmail.com

Born 1962, Tehran, Iran,

Education:
1991 B.A. in painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tehran University
1981 High School Diploma in Graphic Design, Tehran, Iran

Membership:
Member of Iranian Society of Painters

Solo Exhibitions:
2008 Dar Al-Funoon Gallery, “Planting New roots”, Kuwait
2007 Assar Art Gallery, painting exhibition, Tehran, Iran
2006 Tarahan-e Azad Gallery, installation exhibition, Tehran, Iran
2005 Mah Art Gallery, painting and sculpture exhibition, Tehran, Iran
2004 Assar Art Gallery, painting and sculpture exhibition, Tehran, Iran
2003 Elaheh Gallery, hand printing and sculpture exhibition, Tehran, Iran
2003 Iranian Artists’ Forum, hand printing and sculpture exhibition, Tehran, Iran
2002 Arya Gallery, sculpture exhibition, Tehran, Iran
2001 Tarahan-e Azad Gallery, hand printing exhibition, Tehran, Iran
2000 Barg Gallery, painting exhibition, Tehran, Iran
1998 Barg Gallery, painting and sculpture exhibition, Tehran, Iran
1994 Arya Gallery, painting exhibition, Tehran, Iran

Group Exhibitions:
2007 International House of Art for Children, Biennial of Illustrations, Bratislava, Slovakia
1994-2007 Noma Concourse, Tokyo, Japan
2006 The 12th Asian Art Biennale, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2006 University of Fine Arts, Mexico
2005 International House of Art for Children, Biennial of Illustrations, Bratislava, Slovakia
2000 The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts, the Second Biennial of Sculpture, Tehran, Iran
2000 The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts the Sixth Biennial of Graphic Design, Tehran, Iran
1999 Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts, the Sixth International Biennial of Illustration, Tehran, Iran
1993 Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts, the Third International Biennial of Illustration, Tehran, Iran

Other Activities:
Speeches made at different occasions and articles printed in various periodicals on the subject of illustration, sculpting and painting in Iran
2006 Works printed in the book “Contemporary Graphic Design in Iran” in Netherlands
2006 Works printed in Vroom Journal: The journal of drawIng and handmade illustration, UK
1995-1996, Works printed in The UNESCO calendar

Auctions:
2008 Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary Arab and Iranian Art Sales, London, UK
2008 Bonhams Islamic and Indian Art Sales, Dubai, UAE

Reza Lavasani
Illustrator of Lyrics

Translated by Roya Monajem
The sculptor, illustrator, painter, Reza Lavasani was born in 1962 in Sarcheshmeh; one of the old residential quarters of Tehran which in his own words: continue their life only in films today; a neighborhood with small bazaars, narrow alleyways and their unique gorgeous light, arcades, carved wooden doors, stained glass windows of their houses, with the sound of peddlers, green-grocery and secondhand-clothes vendors echoing daily in them, associating times when beauty and aesthetics, art, science and philosophy were part of every day life and not the subject of academic discourses; when ‘conceptual art’ was not displayed in museums and galleries, but on drinking water bowls which with their textual engravings or images either wished blessing for the drinker or exhibited the fine handwork of some anonymous artist… “In the same way that Iranian architecture, the whole structure of a city is based on poetry, the decorative images which are also a part of architecture, are also considered as a part of a lyric… Our culture is the culture of poesy, all the works carried out by human beings in the past are inspired by poetry and lyrics and lyrics are allusions to love. There was a time when human life was closely bond to poesy; and poetry had deep roots in human being.”

“It is years now that I am working with the language of poetry. Hafez’s and Molavi’s poems have inspired me for years now.” No wonder that his last series of sculptures titled Amazement (Asar Gallery 2011) all carry a name derived from the poetry of the above mentioned poets; ‘Seraphim’s Trumpet,” (or blowing in the sur) “Tree of Friendship,” “Trees are burdened”, “He is not to be found, he said,” and… The collection created out of papier mache evoke amazement for two reasons: their huge size and apparent solidity; which at the first glance appear to have been made out of some hard material like stone or metal.

“When we think of sculpture, we usually think of stone and metal and seldom does this idea cross the mind that it is possible to make sculptures out of used paper, while the use of papier mache in making various objects such as pen-holder, book-cover or table has been prevalent in Iran from long time ago… The question of reclamation, restoration and recovery has been one of my main preoccupations.”

In regard to the huge size of his sculptures, Lavasani says: “The path to inner world usually begins from the outer world. Therefore, we should first create things which would be seen. It is only later that the nature of the artist’s world is revealed,’ which in this collection expresses the artist’s preoccupations with one of the spiritual stages of Persian Mysticism or in Attar’s terminology one of the cities of Love, called Amazement (also translated as Bewilderment).
“The spectrum of Lavasni’s works, though not very broad and expansive, is a combination of two attitudes or approaches to visual arts: a decorative, very ornamental and colorful approach with their compositions based on symmetry displaying a kind of balance and harmony in the application of images and motifs. Nearly all his non-plastic works possess this vertical structure associating wall paintings of Iranian Palaces or stained-glass paintings. The vertical composition is divided in two, right in the middle and images with all their detailed colorful decorations are repeated in a symmetrical way. Their graphic structure complements their decorative form and it is this harmony which bestows them balance and equilibrium.

This vertical structure is generally repeated in his quasi-engravings and musical instruments as well, with the exception that here a single thick heavy color has replaced numerous dense colors. The decorative quality has been reduced and their graphic features more hidden. It is as though little by little the artist comes down from the heaven to the earth. The three dimensional works gradually are transformed to earthly forms and the element of color, that is the palette of numerous dense thick colors gives its place to economical use of color. In this way color loses its decorative ornamental characteristic and changes into an expressive element.”

If the philosophical or mythological motives of his early works are elaborated, pluralistic and multidimensional, they are gradually replaced by certain definite symbols.

Lavsani learns and experiments to pour his painterly world with all its mythological extra-terrestrial symbols into more earthly, private rather than some ready-made cliché forms and shapes. His birds are placed in the heart of horses and religious or mythological icons in the heart of simplified profane terrestrial forms. His crowded detailed decorative colorful compositions, give their way to apparently more private simplified forms. His symbolism, with the use of all those heavy mythological motifs and symbols, are now manifested in simplified shapes, with the least use of forms and colors.”
“A closer look at the heart of Lavasani’s works reveals his obsession with compilation of fanciful images and themes, including angels and prophet-like human beings which knows no limit, bestowing a fresh richness and status to these sacred forms.”

Lavasani’s other artistic activities include stage design, production of masks for theater, designing for teaching kits in the field of painting and illustration of 35 books inside and outside the country. He has won several prizes inside and outside Iran and his works have appeared in Iranian Contemporary Graphic Arts published in the Netherlands, the English Verum Magazine and UNESCO’s calendar.

Although it is not possible to classify Lavasani as a painter, illustrator or sculptor, but what he has created in the field of illustration is in harmony with what can be seen in his sculptures; while his sculptures are his illustrations and paintings surging out of pure imagination finding meaning in a three dimensional forms.

Sources:

Reza Lavasani’s interview with Ethics and Arts Newspaper, November 2011, No. 25161

Omid Rohani, Mirror, Reza Lavasani’s Selected Works, Nazar publishing house, Tehran, 2004.