Whom You Know: May 27 SELSELEH / ZELZELEH: MOVERS & SHAKERS IN CONTEMPORARY IRANIAN ART

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

May 27 SELSELEH / ZELZELEH: MOVERS & SHAKERS IN CONTEMPORARY IRANIAN ART

SELSELEH / ZELZELEH:

MOVERS & SHAKERS IN CONTEMPORARY IRANIAN ART

May 28 – August 20, 2009

Opening Reception: May 27, 6 to 8 p.m.

The Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller (LTMH) Gallery is presenting a group exhibition, Selseleh/Zelzeleh: Movers & Shakers in Contemporary Iranian Art, from May 28 through August 20, 2009. Comprising more than 50 seminal works from as many as 40 artists, Selseleh/Zelzeleh (loosely translated as Tradition/Tremor) seeks to illuminate the depth and richness of Iranian art from the post WWII generation to the present. A number of works, including paintings, sculpture, photography, works on paper, and video will be on view for the first time in the U.S. A fully-illustrated color catalogue will accompany the exhibition. Selseleh/Zelzeleh: Movers & Shakers in Contemporary Iranian Art, opening with a reception on May 27 from 6 to 8 p.m., coincides with the Chelsea Art Museum’s summer exhibition, Iran Inside Out, June 26-September 5, 2009, an exploration of the new Persian avant-garde.

The featured artists in Selseleh/Zelzeleh – some living in Iran, some living internationally – are all Iranian or of Iranian descent and share a common ground due to their rich culture and heritage. Alongside the most celebrated Persian artists such as Shirin Neshat, Y.Z. Kami, Reza Derakshani, Pouran Jinchi, Roya Akhavan, Farhad Moshiri, Farideh Lashai and Shoja Azari, the show is introducing newcomers including Mehdi Farhadian, Negar Ahkami, Shiva Ahmadi, Darius Yektai, and Bita Fayyazi. Affirming a continuous dialogue that exists between the generations, these artists explore a multiplicity of divergences from the past that are equally grounded in a respect for cultural continuity as well as in the freshness of youthful innovation. While borrowing from tradition, they have developed their own highly unique artistic language resulting in work that is bold, emotionally charged, and, at times, politically and socially motivated.

Among the highlights of Selseleh/Zelzeleh: Movers & Shakers in Contemporary Iranian Art is Iranian-born, New York-based artist Pouran Jinchi’s, Forough #3, 2008. A mix of Near Eastern calligraphy and abstract expressionism, her paintings, rife with intricate patterning, complex markings and subtle traceries, are meditative and holistic in nature. The literary origins of her art reflect her strong feeling for poetry, as she explores her Persian heritage and renders it contemporary.

Since 2006, Shoja Azari and Shahram Karimi have been collaborating on “video paintings,” a new form which examines stasis and movement at the juxtaposition of video and painting. What Remains (from the Oil Paintings Series), 2009, is a work that combines a video by Shoja Azari projected onto a painting by Shahram Karimi. Haunting and apocalyptic, the team’s seven-piece series of was inspired by searing images of the Kuwaiti oil fields that were set aflame in 1991 during the withdraw of the Iraqi army in the Persian Gulf War.

Grappling in form and content with the contradiction between beauty and brutality, Negar Ahkami’s painting, Herat II, 2009, depicts prostrating female nudes on a serpentine red carpet that leads to a mosque-like building. Through her work, she explores the contradiction between traditional Persian art and the menacing contemporary image that the West has of Iran.

Using each image as a tool to express her political agenda, Shiva Ahmadi’s visual language consists of symbolism, Middle Eastern patterns and Islamic architecture. Rendered in jewel-tone watercolors, Rocks, 2009, endeavors to show the instability and complexity in Middle Eastern cultures as they move toward modernity. Born in Tehran, Ahmadi was educated in Iran and the United States.

Selseleh/Zelzeleh: Movers & Shakers in Contemporary Iranian Art is the second exhibition co-curated by Dr. Layla Diba and Leila Heller, two leading authorities in the field. The opening reception on May 27 will also feature a book signing for “Different Sames: New Perspectives in Contemporary Iranian Art,” edited by Hossein Amirsadeghi.

Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery

39 East 78th Street at Madison Avenue New York NY 10075 212.249.7695

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