NEW YORK
Iranian Artist Makes History At Guggenheim
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian is the first Iranian artist to have a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum.
In the early 1950s, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian would dream about one day showing her artwork the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Farmanfarmaian, now 92, is a renowned Iranian visual artist known for her geometric style and mirror sculptures. Last week, she became the first Iranian artist to have her work featured in a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim.
Farmanfarmaian was born in Qazvin, Iran, in 1924. Farmanfarmaian pursued art in school, studying both in Iran at the Fine Arts College at the University of Tehran, and in the United States at Cornell University and Parson’s School of Design.
Living in New York in the 1950s, she was exposed to and ultimately absorbed by the city’s thriving art scene. She and Andy Warhol bonded over their jobs as fashion illustrators at the time, became friends, and even exchanged their artwork. In 1957, Farmanfarmaian got married and returned to Iran, where she began collecting and showing local folk art.
Infinite Possibility: Mirror Works and Drawings 1974–2014 runs until June 3.
BAHRAIN
“AU PAYS DES MOLLAHS” (MOLLAH’S LAND)
Artist Sayeh Sarfaraz’s work “Au Pays des Mollahs” (Mollah’s Land) is currently on exhibit at Albareh Art Gallery. The exhibition of paintings by the Iranian/Canadian opened earlier this year in Adliya.
Sayeh Sarfaraz’s drawings take their roots from the Persian miniatures culture and expressed in a contemporary way with modern references. The characters in her drawings give way to expressions of violence in the fragility of these simple forms. Each drawing is related to the other and together they create a movement of social composition – the curves, the lines, and the way the drawings branch out from each other or merge to shape a new form.
Sayeh Sarfaraz was born in Shiraz, the cultural capital of Iran, located in the South West of the country. She graduated from l’École supérieure Des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg France and has also studied art in Iran and Canada.
Albareh Art Gallery located at Building 38, Road 3601, Area 336, Adliya, Manama, Bahrain
STANFORD
Photography Exhibit from Middle Eastern Photographers
A major new exhibition at the Cantor Arts Center, She Who Tells a Story, presents the pioneering work of 12 leading women photographers from Iran and the Arab world. The artists explore identity, narrative, representation, and war in daily life, inviting a broader understanding of the Middle East.
The 79 photographs and two videos-a collection of stories about contemporary life-especially refute the belief that women from this region are oppressed and powerless. The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) and runs at the Cantor, its only West-Coast venue through May 4.
The 81 works, created almost entirely within the last decade, range in style from fine art to photojournalism and represent the women’s diverse perspectives. The photographers are: Jananne Al-Ani, Boushra Almutawakel, Gohar Dashti, Rana El Nemr, Lalla Essaydi, Shadi Ghadirian, Tanya Habjouqa, Rula Halawani, Nermine Hammam, Rania Matar, Shirin Neshat, and Newsha Tavakolian.
In Arabic, the word rawiya means “she who tells a story,” and through their work, these 12 pioneering artists collectively portray a region that has undergone unparalleled change and endured continuing conflict.
She Who Tells a Story at Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University 328 Lomita Drive at Museum Way, Stanford, CA 94305, (650) 723-417. Run through May 4, 2015