1330-64

1410-7

NEW YORK
Show Featuring Iran’s Contemporary Art Scene

Curators Roya Khadjavi Heidari and Massoud Nader announce Portraits: Reflections by Emerging Iranian Artists, a groundbreaking group show which will further shed light on, and explore, Iran’s contemporary art scene by showcasing work by over 20 young Iranian artists who were raised, educated, and born there. The exhibition will be on view from September 17 to September 22, 2014 at Rogue Space Gallery, located at 508 West 26th Street, New York, New York.
Portraits: Reflection of Emerging Iranian Artists will include paintings, photography, sculpture, mixed media, and video works by Ahmad Morshedloo, Alishia Morassaie, Arash Sedaghatkish, Babak Bidarian, Bahar Behbahani, Dadbeh Basir, Hossein Edalatkhah, Jinoos Taghizadeh, Morteza Pourhosseini, Nasser Bakhshi, Samira Alikhanzadeh, Sepanta Ghassemkhani, among others, many of whose works have never before been exhibited in the United States.
“The works in the show diligently create a dialogue between contemporary art on one hand and the rich cultural influence of Iran’s past on the other,” said Heidari and Nader.

1410-8

AZERBAIJAN
Multi-Disciplinary Artist Bakhshi Shows Work in Baku

A solo exhibition by Iranian artist Mahmoud Bakhshi opened in Baku on May 30. “Talk Cloud” is hosted by Yay Gallery, located in the historical area of Baku.
The exhibition is curated by art historian theorist Daria Kirsanova, who previously worked for several art-institutions such as Serpentine Gallery and Victoria Miro Gallery in London.
Mahmoud Bakhshi’s practice deals 1410-9with a visual aesthetics that developed in Iran in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Talk Cloud is a cross-disciplinary project that includes lightbox sculptures, drawings, and video.
In this new body of work, Bakhshi is looking into the very origins of the notion of so-called ‘political engagement’ in art. However, Bakhshi is not only interested in political power. He is equally concerned with the interaction between art and capital, another stakeholder in this rivalry for authority.
Yay Gallery, the exhibition’s host, was established in September 2012 as an addition to the broader initiative conceived by YARAT Contemporary Art Organization in order to support and promote the development of Azerbaijani contemporary art both on a national and international level.
The gallery is a commercial, but not-for-profit body. All potential revenues from art sales are channeled into supporting YARAT initiatives and artists.