C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t R e v i e w

My work is composed of exuberantly whimsical abstractions, where color and organic forms prevail. Using every-day observances and experiences as an influence, layers of paint construct layers of meaning. By considering personal moments and interactions of the universal human experience, the spectator is drawn into a fictitious and heartwarming universe that emerges bit by bit. Works appear as dreamlike images in which past and present merge; nostalgia, sentiment and romanticism often play a role as a means of adding poetic value to everyday life. As an artist, I enjoy the exchange between the artwork and the viewer, and I encourage the viewer to make his or her own connections to the work. As such: my works do not reference an identifiable form- thereby allowing the imagery to facilitate fluidity in meaning and multifaceted interpretations based on the life experiences of the viewer. Aesthetically, I am influenced by a broad range of styles: the line work of the Ancient Mayans, the bright colors and compositions of Pop Art, the fantasy of Surrealism and our Postmodern visual culture.

My art reflects the complex and many-faceted aesthetic pleasures that the tradition of painting offers me. My recent work, which has many faces— both literally and metaphorically— is a hybrid of traditional and contemporary values and concerns. The process of painting challenges me to seek, identify and bring forthsomething special. Each finished painting is a unique statement and has a“ voice” of its own. The varied portraits and figures that I include are broughtinto my own kind of painted language, layered with conceptual and perceptualrevelations. I use traditional and reliable materials: mostly oil paint on canvas or panel. Myworking methods are also consistent and I begin each work by working fromlife, photos and / or found images. The variety of my finished paintings reflectsmy exploratory processes and the many varied and searching interactions Ihave with each work in progress. It is an evolutionary process without a pre-determined outcome. I have a general idea of what I want to accomplish; the canvas has its ownidea of what it wants to be; and at some point we come to a mutualagreement. My individual works morph into sequences and series, oftengenerating a variety of sizes and iterations. In turn, each new series takes meinto new territory, leading me— both intuitively and intellectually— towards mynext body of work.

In a way, the agri-food industry has become a new godfrom which citizens must proclaim their autonomy. Eating is thus a deliberate act. It is no longer a mere reflex linked to bodily survival, but an action prompted by more or less conscious emotional, economic and political choices. While tastes may not be open to discussion, they entail consumer decisions that have repercussions on our environment. The provenance of foodstuffs and their methods of production( intensive or organic) and management( exploitation or fair trade) are political and nutritional options by which people manifest their social commitment and express their individuality. On the art scene, food is a subject / object that has fascinated and“ nourished” numerous performers. In many cases, their work goes far beyond the simple aesthetic event to address the eating behaviours of our society. Obviously, not all artists who use edibles as materialare political or environmental activists, but most have eating related experience or habits or attitudes that influence their every action. Food aversions, allergies, diets, special treats and childhood memories thus become food for thought in developing their art practices.

Creating a futuristic style that taps into Jung’ s“ unconscious collective”, my paintings follow the instructions of an anti-dualist agenda. It is a way of experiencing other worlds without actually having to reveal the source of such an experience. Consciously, that which belongs to the unconscious of the other becomes real. Organic structures give rise to the thoughts represented by objects abducted and recompiled. Even though their composition is unknown to ordinary experience and normative folk psychology, they emerge from what appears as abstraction, but is the rational intuition of their instruction. While influenced by natural forms and science fiction, their aim is to challenge the mythology of scientific thinking. That is, there is no“ picture thinking” supporting some mythological idea of creation, as with the holographic principle. No origin depending on dark matter or the accretion disks of black holes emanating from a fear of sound reason, for if experimental evidence justified theoretical reasoning, it would depend on particular contingencies. What is presented is therefore neither absurd nor surreal, but rather a way of breaching the abstract and entering a manifold of actual possibilities. These are ones where there is no severance or duality between what is being judged and the understanding that presupposes its judgments are rational. Beyond the real, Antony Gormley’ s Mist Box opened up unconscious worlds for me; the 2D doesn’ t encode the 3D, as with the Holographic principle, but really presents us with an image projected from the“ unconscious collective”.

Although I like the modern style very much but still try not to deviate very much from my Persian root and culture, therefore I have started combining the elements which can show both and also added some of my imaginations to show a perspective of present, past and maybe future. In all of my works there is an image of a lady who is living in the present world but also have roots in the ancient culture. I don’ t like to show everything very clear and complete in my works and prefer to engage my audience using their own cognition and mind processing the idea of each painting. Every painting is the result of my own thinking and imagination and no one else. I pay a careful attention to every elements on the canvas same as the lady figure and spend time on every each of the elements without any preferences. Sometimes an idea comes to my mind spontaneously. I get involved in that idea and try to develop technic and vision together. I try to develop my ideas by putting a woman in the paintings and showing the changes that time would or will expose on her.

I utilize material and sensory experience as a means to explore meaning. Material is worked until there is a shift into another realm: fabric becomes flesh, a sack, or an embryo, pins become candy, paint becomes a skin of strawberry icecream or bubble gum, a pom pom becomes a microorganism or disease. My work strives to have a visceral presence by virtue of formal aesthetics, often riding the line between what is beautiful, grotesque and delicious. This speaks to various dichotomies I often reference in my work, such as light and dark, spirit and flesh. Working on muscle cars was a large part of my adolescence, so I often reference this aesthetic in the form of flame jobs, pin striping designs, and metal flakelike glitter paint. While alluding to the idea of“ eye candy” and the obsessive customization and adornment often associated with car culture, these visually ornamental aspects of the work also carry spiritual meaning. At times they may point to things in life that are fleeting and carnal, the lusts of the eye and impure motives of the heart. However, flames can also symbolize the idea of inner refinement, as in the burning away of impurities by the Holy Spirit. Ornamental hood decals and sparkly paint can speak to the visual softening of something hard and made of steel as metaphor for the softening of the heart.