2 November - 27 November - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM

Etemad Gallery:

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

2 November - 27 November - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM

Etemad Gallery:

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

26 October - 20 November - 2018

Opening Hours: 3-8 pm

Visiting Hours: 1-7 pm
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery [Negarestan] :
Negarestan Garden, Daneshsara St., Baharestan Sq., Tehran-Iran

12 October - 23 October - 2018

Opening Hours: 3-8 pm

Visiting Hours: 1-7 pm
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery [Negarestan] :
Negarestan Garden, Daneshsara St., Baharestan Sq., Tehran-Iran

6 October - 30 October - 2018

Story_of_the_Flood.pdf

Opening: 3-8 PM

Etemad Gallery:

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

5 October - 30 October - 2018

Becoming.pdf

Opening: 3-8 PM

Etemad Gallery:

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

14 September - 9 October - 2018

Opening Hours: 3-8 pm

Visiting Hours: 1-7 pm
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery [Negarestan] :
Negarestan Garden, Daneshsara St., Baharestan Sq., Tehran-Iran

7 September - 2 October - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM

Etemad Gallery:

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

7 September - 2 October - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM

Etemad Gallery:

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

10 August - 4 September - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM

Etemad Gallery:

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

Etemad Gallery [Negarestan] :

Visiting Hours: 1-7 pm

Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Negarestan Garden, Daneshsara St., Baharestan Sq., Tehran-Iran

10 August - 11 September - 2018

Opening Hours: 3-8 pm

Visiting Hours: 1-7 pm
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery [Negarestan] :
Negarestan Garden, Daneshsara St., Baharestan Sq., Tehran-Iran

20 July - 4 August - 2018

Opening Hours: 3-8 pm

Visiting Hours: 1-7 pm
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery [Negarestan] :
Negarestan Garden, Daneshsara St., Baharestan Sq., Tehran-Iran

13 July - 4 August - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery:
No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

29 June - 17 July - 2018

Opening Hours: 3-8 pm

Visiting Hours: 1-7 pm
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery [Negarestan] :
Negarestan Garden, Daneshsara St., Baharestan Sq., Tehran-Iran

22 June - 10 July - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery:
No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

25 May - 26 June - 2018

Opening Hours: 3-8 pm

Visiting Hours: 1-7 pm
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery [Negarestan] :
Negarestan Garden, Daneshsara St., Baharestan Sq., Tehran-Iran

18 May - 19 June - 2018

Statement-_Crashed_into_the_sun-_Hoda_Kashiha.pdf

Opening: 3-8 PM

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery:
No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

18 May - 19 June - 2018

Mojtaba_Tabatabaie-statement_Farsi_English.pdf

Opening: 3-8 PM

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery:
No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

27 April - 22 May - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM
Visiting Hours: 2-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery [Negarestan] :
Negarestan Garden, Daneshsara St., Baharestan Sq., Tehran-Iran

20 April - 15 May - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery:
No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

20 April - 15 May - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery:
No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

16 March - 22 April - 2018

Ashkan Abdoli

Morteza Ahmadvand

Asareh Akasheh

Amirhossein Akhavan

Roshanak Aminelahi

Hooman Derakhshande

Enlaz Farajollahi

Farsad Labbauf

Roxana Manouchehri

Mona Paad

Pooya Razi

Afarin Sajedi

Peyman Shafieezadeh

Leila Vismeh

Neda Zarfsaz

Opening: 3-8 PM
Visiting Hours: 2-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery [Negarestan] :
Negarestan Garden, Daneshsara St., Baharestan Sq., Tehran-Iran

9 March - 17 April - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery:
No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

9 March - 17 April - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery:
No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

16 February - 10 March - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM
Visiting Hours: 2-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery [Negarestan] :
Negarestan Garden, Daneshsara St., Baharestan Sq., Tehran-Iran

16 February - 6 March - 2018

Opening: 3-8 PM

Visiting Hours: 12-8 PM
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery:
No.25, Shiroodi Dead End, South Mofateh Ave., Haft-e Tir Square., Tehran-Iran

26 January - 10 February - 2018

Opening: 15 - 20
Visiting Hours: Week Days: 11 - 20
Gallery is closed on Mondays.

Etemad Gallery [Negarestan]:
Negarestan Garden, Daneshsara St., Baharestan Sq., Tehran-Iran

19 January - 10 February - 2018

19 January - 10 February - 2018

30 December - 10 January - 2017

18 November - 6 December - 2016

Behnaz_Mohammadhadi1.pdf

18 November - 6 December - 2016

Mostafa_Choobtarash.pdf

4 November - 15 November - 2016

21 October - 15 November - 2016

Kambiz_Sharif.pdf

21 October - 1 November - 2016

Sepideh_Sahar.pdf

23 September - 18 October - 2016

Alireza_Memariani.pdf

23 September - 18 October - 2016

Leila_Salar_Behzadi_.pdf

9 September - 20 September - 2016

Arash_Fesharaki.pdf

9 September - 20 September - 2016

Ali_Zaeem1.pdf

26 August - 6 September - 2016

Bahar_Arbabi.pdf

26 August - 6 September - 2016

Hamid_Nourkeyhani.pdf

8 July - 26 July - 2016

AdelehFarzindar_SafaHosseini.pdf

8 July - 26 July - 2016

Azadeh_Ghazanfari.pdf

24 June - 5 July - 2016

Mohsen Ahmadvand

Amirhossein Akhavan

Bahar Behbahani

Roshanak Aminelahi

Hamid Pazoki

Yousha Bashir

Mostafa Darebaghi

Mostafa Choobtarash

Shantia Zakerameli

Hooman Derakhshandeh

Pooya Razi

Mohamad Rahimi

Afarin Sajedi

Ramtin Zad

Parichehr Tayebi

Peyman Shafieezadeh

Hoda Kashiha

Mohamad Mehdi Tabatabaie

Ali Golestaneh

Simin Keramati

Mehrdad Mohebali

Shohreh Mehran

Leila Vismeh

Aneh Mohammad Tatari

10 June - 21 June - 2016

Mohammad_Hassan_Nikbakht.pdf

10 June - 21 June - 2016

Hanie_Sadri.pdf

27 May - 7 June - 2016

Asareh_Akasheh.pdf

27 May - 7 June - 2016

Homa_Arkani.pdf

13 May - 24 May - 2016

Malekeh_Nayiny.pdf

13 May - 24 May - 2016

Kourosh_Arish.pdf

22 April - 10 May - 2016

Blue_Gold.pdf

4 March - 11 March - 2016

Goli_Entezari.pdf

4 March - 11 March - 2016

Gilda_Nowparast.pdf

26 February - 1 March - 2016

Golzar_Hasanzadeh.pdf

19 February - 1 March - 2016

SepidehNouri.pdf

5 February - 16 February - 2016

Ozhen_Siroosi.pdf

5 February - 16 February - 2016

Alireza_Masoomi.pdf

22 January - 2 February - 2016

Saeed_M_Nodehi_.pdf

22 January - 2 February - 2016

Ila_Firoozabadi_[_card_]_04.pdf

8 January - 19 January - 2016

Arefe_Arad.pdf

8 January - 19 January - 2016

Peyman_Shafieezadeh.pdf

25 December - 5 January - 2016

Ramin_Saadat_Gharin_.pdf

25 December - 5 January - 2016

Ashkan_Abdoli.pdf

11 December - 22 December - 2015

Fatemeh_Bagherpour.pdf

11 December - 22 December - 2015

Amir_Akhavan.pdf

4 December - 15 December - 2015

Sepideh_Nourmohammad_Manesh.pdf

27 November - 8 December - 2015

Roshanak_Aminelahi.pdf

13 November - 24 November - 2015

Aneh_Mohammad_Tatari.pdf

13 November - 24 November - 2015

Hossein_Bayat.pdf

6 November - 1 December - 2015

Mohsen_Vaziri_Moghaddam.pdf

Autonomous Forms and Articulation of Space:
Mohsen Vaziri Moghaddam’s Art
Dr Hamid Keshmirshekan

For seven decades during the most crucial periods of Iranian art Mohsen Vaziri Moghaddam has been active as a vigorous artist, educator and writer. He also witnessed the decades of radical changes and transformations in Western art, including the eclipse of modernism and the birth of contemporary art. Having looked at his vast variety of artistic practices, although it seems that he has absorbed the contextual preference of these shifts, he has deliberately chosen his own path and artistic strategy which is not precisely complying with any of the pre-existing formats. Vaziri further played a significant role in promotion of modern painting and sculpture as forms of artistic expression thorough his teaching activities and writings in the 1960s and 1970s. It was in fact in line with the earlier attempts of pioneers of the previous generation who succeeded in formulation of modern poetry, literature and art. During the years when he taught at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Faculty of Decorative Arts he trained a number of modernists from the new generation who were extremely influential all through the next decades.1

The decades of the 1950s and 1960s also witnessed appreciation of national and cultural identity coupled with celebration of ‘national art’ and its representation in Iranian culture and art. This idea was then manifested in the works of many modernist artists. It is in this very context that Vaziri’s art seems quite self-governing, taking distance from any popular movement or tendencies within the country. Unlike many artists of his generation who were deeply involved in the issue of cultural identity in line with appropriation of Western stylistic formats, he deliberately distanced himself from reflection of any local theme. Perhaps he more than many other Iranian modernists has avoided reflecting narrative or literary reference to specific Iranian mythological or mystical implications. He rather believes any attempt to make an ‘Iranian art’ is condemned, as it would impose limitation to art and its origin.

Although Vaziri used elements from traditional Iranian art and architecture in his early works in the 1950s – reflecting the familiar modern styles such as Matisse’s Fauvism and geometric, stylised and colourful forms of Paul Klee – he never came back to this in his later periods. His later stages of artistic career demonstrate that although he has never abandoned his interest in modern masters – Klee in particular is discernible – he has moved to pure abstraction. Hence abstract values of forms, colours, lines, rhythm and spatial movement are among the most notable elements in his works throughout his long career. Using two-dimensional geometric shapes with bright colours in his later works, he created various experimental works with the use of various materials and media. In these works (Sand Paintings in particular) he was influenced by European Informal Art and American Abstract Expressionism, specifically Action Painting and its spontaneity. His informal material-oriented and gestural works, however, seem playful and calculated: they are intuitive but at the same time are intellectual treatments of material on two-dimensional canvas.

Vaziri’s continuous interest in experimenting with unconventional materials led him to work on a series of rhythmic reliefs made up of aluminium and iron sheets in the late 1960s. Shortly after he developed his style through a unique series of articulated mobile sculptures. During the 1970s he developed this approach through Fear and Flight series, the colourful version of the mobile sculptures but now attached to the two-dimensional canvases. In turn these sculptures inspired a series of paintings that marked a return to the well-defined shapes of his three-dimensional works. What would be discerned from the artist’s involvement in all these sets of works, both painting and sculpture, is a constant appreciation of the essential theme of ‘space’.

Vaziri is a sincere advocate of modernism as an international language and vividly promotes this belief both in his writings and works. His ahistorical works are materialisation of this certainty and his insistence on formal values of an artwork is an attempt to defend autonomy of art and its independence from any external agent, being narration, literary references or social implications. It is according to this belief that his art does not depict any political or geographical dependence. If the language of modern art is globalised, this art is rather liberated from geographical determination, free from cultural dependencies or local traditions. Creating apolitical paintings and sculptures without reference to any ethnic or environmental icons or pre-existing formula is a distinguishing feature in Vaziri’s artistic career. This would be reminiscent of the most influential definition of the concept of Abstraction – perhaps the dominant aspiration of 20th-century art, both in the West and other lands where modernism was appropriated – formulated by Clement Greenberg. In ‘Modernist Painting’, he suggests that ‘each art would be rendered “pure”, and in its “purity” find the guarantee of its standards of quality as well as of its independence. “Purity” meant self-definition, and the enterprise of self-criticism in the arts became one of self-definition with a vengeance.’2  An attempt at a consensus definition of abstraction might be that an abstract work of art is a production that creates a highly singular and effectively unprecedented visual experience. Vaziri’s almost entire body of works represents this self-definition and singularity of an artwork. His works, both paintings and sculptures, show a strong sensitivity towards pure and autonomous forms, colours and articulation of space that accompanied him throughout his entire career. Vaziri’s art suggests an alternative but solid and masterful modernism in Iranian context which avoids any kind of nostalgic return to the familiar stereotypes.
 

October 2015

1. In those years, he started writing a number of art textbooks which all showed his deep interest and belief in modern art and its foundations.
2. Clement Greenberg, ‘Modernist Painting’, in Art in Theory 1900-2000, eds, Charles Harrison & Paul Wood (Malden, Oxford: Blackwell), p. 775.

30 October - 10 November - 2015

Laleh_Ardestani.pdf

30 October - 10 November - 2015

Pooya_Razi.pdf

16 October - 27 October - 2015

Saeed_Kouros.pdf

9 October - 20 October - 2015

Mona_Paad.pdf

9 October - 20 October - 2015

Nastaran_Safaei.pdf

25 September - 6 October - 2015

Hoda_Kashiha.pdf

25 September - 6 October - 2015

Neda_Zarfsaz.pdf

18 September - 13 October - 2015

Amir_Dastmardi.pdf

11 September - 22 September - 2015

Shaahin_Norouzi.pdf

11 September - 22 September - 2015

Melika_Shafahi.pdf

3 August - 21 November - 2015

Dear Artists,
 
Etemad Gallery hereby invites all artists who wish to participate in the collaborated group exhibition Blue Gold, curated by Vida Zaim and Leila Varasteh, to send their CVs and proposals to the following addresses:

Vida Zaim vidazaim@hotmail.com
Leila Varasteh leilavarasteh@yahoo.com
Mana Morshedi mana@galleryetemad.com

The theme of the project, which addresses the future drought catastrophe, has become a primary source of concern for the whole nation.

Subsequent to being selected, the artists will have their works exhibited at Etemad Gallery along with several other established artists. The show will be held in Spring 2016.

 
There are no limitations in technique or size of the artworks.
The deadline for submissions is November 21, 2015.



“The intention of this project is to create awareness with the help of art and artists who have always been the true revolutionaries and pioneers, awakening, informing, and influencing the masses with their work, throughout the tide of history. In the spirit of good willingness and collaboration, we hope that this project will create the positive effect that it is meant for.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Vida Zaim and Leila Varasteh
 

10 July - 24 July - 2015

Mohsen Ahmadvand
Ashkan Abdoli
Amin Bagheri
Mostafa Choobtarash
Mostafa Darehbaghi
Elnaz Farajollahi
Peyman Hooshmandzadeh
Alireza Masoumi
Shohreh Mehran
Mehrdad Mohebali
Saeed Mohammadzadeh Nodehi
Raheleh Nooravar
Abdolhamid Pazoki
Kimia Rahgozar
Mohamad Rahimi
Sara Rahanjam
Afarin Sajedi
Nastaran Safaei
Mohammadreza Shahrokhinejad
Leila Vismeh
Ramtin Zad

10 July - 24 July - 2015

Shahla Ahmadi Moghaddam
Maryam Azadfallah
Aylar Dastgiri
Shabnam Jahanshahi
Simin Jalilian
Hoda Kashiha
Golnaz Kianpour
Omid Masoumi
Amir Mokhber
Alireza Nekouei
Sepideh Nourmohammad Manesh
Mehdi Rangchi
Elmira Rouzbeh
Amirhossein Shahbodaghlou
Amir Shams
Bahar Taheri
Rashin Teymouri
Neda Zare
 

26 June - 7 July - 2015

26 June - 7 July - 2015

Sara_Saghari.pdf

12 June - 23 June - 2015

Parichehr_Tayebi.pdf

12 June - 23 June - 2015

Negar_Farajiani.pdf

29 May - 9 June - 2015

Shantia_Zakerameli.pdf

29 May - 9 June - 2015

Arash_Bahrami.pdf

22 May - 21 June - 2015

Pedrom_Tanaomi.pdf

22 May - 21 June - 2015

Setareh_Khosravani.pdf

15 May - 26 May - 2015

Ramin_Shirdel.pdf

15 May - 26 May - 2015

Neda_Razavipour.pdf

1 May - 12 May - 2015

Mohamad_Rahimi.pdf

1 May - 12 May - 2015

Bahar_Behbahani.pdf

24 April - 17 May - 2015

Mohamad_Mehdi_Tabatabaie.pdf

17 April - 28 April - 2015

Elnaz_Farajollahi.pdf

17 April - 28 April - 2015

Yousha_Bashir.pdf

27 February - 10 March - 2015

Azadeh_Etebarian.pdf

27 February - 10 March - 2015

Raheleh_Nooravar.pdf

27 February - 15 March - 2015

Mehrdad_Mohebali.pdf

17 February - 24 February - 2015

13 February - 24 February - 2015

Sasan_Gharehdaghloo.pdf

13 February - 24 February - 2015

Morvarid_K.pdf

30 January - 10 February - 2015

Leila_Vismeh.pdf

30 January - 10 February - 2015

Amin_Bagheri.pdf

30 January - 15 February - 2015

Amirhossein_Shahbodaghloo.pdf

30 January - 24 February - 2015

Elmira_and_Parviz_Roozbeh.pdf

16 January - 27 January - 2015

Hooman_Derakhshandeh.pdf

16 January - 27 January - 2015

Samira_Nowparast.pdf

14 January - 14 January - 2015

Sponsors.pdf

As “I” find meaning in the presence of “you”, the experience of peace is formed as opposed to war. Our perception of the outside world is an experience connected to our bodies, minds and living conditions. We all have seen people coming together wherever there is a fire lit and the primal attraction of fire passes through all colors and borders and invites humanity to a unique experience. We will light a candle, symbolizing the ancient fire; to call for a revision in the paradigms of peaceful living in spite of all colors, despite all political differences, regardless of borders. This can only take place with reciprocal collaboration of people vis-à-vis a peaceful setting. These lanterns, which are called “the experience”, will be sent to some tens of cafés located in different places of the world; cafés who have been witness to incidents centered around the same distinction. Audiences will sit at tables, experience lanterns, lit, carrying poetic messages of humanity, and a moment of unbreakable connection with the world, humanity and the whole existence will be felt. Similar to the moment that we learn thousands of people, unaware of each other, stare simultaneously at the moon every night.
 

2 January - 13 January - 2015

Homa_Bazrafshan.pdf

2 January - 13 January - 2015

Jahed_Sarboland.pdf

19 December - 30 December - 2014

Shahpari_Behzadi.pdf

19 December - 30 December - 2014

Mohammadreza_Javaheri.pdf

19 December - 13 January - 2015

Mahmoud_Bakhshi.pdf

19 December - 13 January - 2015

Amir_Shams.pdf

5 December - 16 December - 2014

Abdolreza_Ghomashchi.pdf

5 December - 16 December - 2014

Mohammadreza_Shahrokhinejad.pdf

21 November - 2 December - 2014

Mostafa_Choobtarash.pdf

21 November - 2 December - 2014

Parvin_Amirgholi.pdf

14 November - 9 December - 2014

Parviz_Tanavoli.pdf

7 November - 18 November - 2014

Shohreh_Mehran.pdf

7 November - 18 November - 2014

Mahnoosh_Naderi.pdf

24 October - 2 November - 2014

Afarin_Sajedi.pdf

24 October - 2 November - 2014

Bahareh_Raeesi.pdf

Music by: Ehsan Saboohi, Karen Keyhani
Santour Soloist: Pouya Saraei

The performance will take place on October 24, 31 and November 2, 2014
پرفورمنس در روزهای ۲، ۹ و ۱۱ آبان اجرا خواهد شد

10 October - 21 October - 2014

Shabahang-Tayyari.pdf

10 October - 21 October - 2014

Peyman-Hooshmandzadeh.pdf

26 September - 7 October - 2014

Hossein_Mojeni.pdf

26 September - 7 October - 2014

Morteza_Ahmadvand.pdf

12 September - 23 September - 2014

Sepideh_Sahar.pdf

My fun was hiding in grandma's garden. Digging the ground and burying my toys. The magic of childhood made stories in my mind more wonderful than fairy tales. with far and hidden stories, I imagine and live that magic...

Sepideh Sahar, 2014

12 September - 23 September - 2014

Mehdi_Rangchi.pdf

A memory is the mere crust of events past. Events that are kneaded with daggers and poniards sing of memories out of tune. By eliminating the margins and icons the life of matter starts a new and the geometry of memory takes shape. Following this new birth, time becomes pregnant once more...

Mehdi Rangchi, 2014

29 August - 9 September - 2014

Ali_Zaeem.pdf

Private View: 11 July
11 July - 22 July - 2014

Private View: 11 July
11 July - 22 July - 2014

Private View: 27 June
27 June - 8 July - 2014

Private View: 27 June
27 June - 8 July - 2014

.

Private View: 13 June
13 June - 24 June - 2014

There was a time when Ramtin Zad would entertain us with his witty and playful subjects where certain motifs had come to be part of his repertoire in bold bright colours. Kebab skewers, watermelons, teapots and turquoise domes with elaborate Persian designs were interspersed with the random people who occupied his world. He seems to have left that place and headed out to nature to hang out with animals.
He has left the day and entered the night. In his ‘Nocturnal’ series, the night talks of the days. Days we have all been living through. He has forsaken the bright for the deep. He has focused on animals and in the process his random people have become more real.
But Zad’s new domain is an unpredictable one where something is lurking even in the seemingly lush and untouched. Here size is an issue both in the imposing nature and the beasts that roam and romp within it. The expanses of some northern unknown place covered in snow are brought into perspective by the jarring presence of monkeys. But it’s their dunce hats that define the scale. The explosion of rich autumnal trees, unstable in the distance, hangs over a waterfall where a man with all his might is locked paralyzed, hanging on to his trophy of a giant fish that is struggling to free itself from his clutches. Giant fir trees’ spiky needles substitute soft tinsel as they hang over a crowd of merry-makers in a masked ball.
Within this wild oversized nature, humankind is tested against the elements but mainly against himself and his own kind. Where humans are often asses, or wish to seem so for whatever reason. And there are bears, huge, angry bears fighting or are they dancing too in another corner of this mad soiree?
In this seemingly mythical place, if there is nobility it is in the animal and where there is ignobility it is amongst the humans who by turn find themselves omnipotent because of their sudden found size or by virtue of their smallness in what is being done in their name or to them. And then there are the fireworks that convey no sound. The crack of wings of a flock of doves taking off in Imam Reza’s shrine are more audible than the fireworks overhead. In Zad’s new works fireworks are a sign of silence.
Zad has now abandoned surface motifs and is diving deep within, stripping himself naked in a confessional. That he struggles, that he too struggles and is not immune to what has been on parade at the masquerade we have all been attending.

Haleh Anvari

Private View: 13 June
13 June - 24 June - 2014

.

Private View: 10 June
10 June - 11 June - 2014

It seems we have never loved ‘body’. Judging contradicts with the base of loving. This physical mass, which is constantly changing, gets further away from the ideal and all standards that have been defined for us.

Judging the body is one of the achievements of the recent century. Phenomena such as obesity, dieting, beauty, ugliness, fitness, youth, ageing , covering the nakedness and human relationship never leave us alone.

Do we love our bodies? Are those supermodels that tease us for our bodies’ failure love their own bodies? What about those who rip off their bodies under the surgeon's knife and unbearable fitness plans, or the ones who won't hesitate a second for their health and barely enjoy their life?
 
Are we supposed to love our bodies? Is mortality is an unbeatable fact which contradicts loving the body till it returns back to the cycle of nature?

And this judging doesn't leave us even for a moment.

Shadi Noyani/ 2014

Private View: 23 May
23 May - 3 June - 2014

Amir_Sadegh_Tehrani.pdf

.

Private View: 23 May
23 May - 3 June - 2014

Kourosh_Arish.pdf

A day when all hopes die and the beliefs are faded so that the anxiety and worry attack to the life seconds, glamour mirage is revealed in our hidden wandering desert. We must state recklessly that most of us have experienced such a day at least once in our life cycle.
In the present collection, we have tried as our best to exhibit the different forms of glamour that dominated today over any taste and class in our society, on the forms inspired from their natural specter. It is neither an effort for its acceptance nor rejecting this issue. However, sometimes the man heartily believes in this subject so insubstantially that the same false belief makes his demands achievable and realizes the glamour illusion.

Kourosh Arish

Spring 2014

Private View: 9 May
9 May - 20 May - 2014

No! Yes, I too am a tyrant. I founded my tyranny on my own perceptions and interpretations of objects, doors, walls, landscapes, and people. But the reality changed with the passage of time. Objects and landscapes are susceptible to the damaging effect of time, so I threw them all into the abyss. And the result was abstraction and fluidity. As time is irrelevant in abstraction, my will had to overcome the prevalent meanings and interpretations. Thus, I summoned the creatures back from the abyss. Raised from the grave, the humans and animals crowded my paintings. However, coming from far away, out of the caverns as dark as instincts and myths, the animals knew things about humans too gloomy, too horrible and too gigantic for my will power to handle. Hence, I entirely eradicated them. Now, I am safe and have total control of my realm, devoid of all outsiders, with every single superfluous element removed, and every idle, suspicious, or worthless thing, animal and even limb eliminated. Wherever the limbs were not absolutely necessary, I amputated them and kept only the faces – I too am a tyrant, and I need the faces to sustain my tyranny.

Raana Farnoud

May, 2014

Private View: 9 May
9 May - 20 May - 2014

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Private View: 25 April
25 April - 6 May - 2014

Etemad Gallery-Tehran [1] is pleased to invite you to the Book Launch and Exhibition of Lion & Banana by Mohsen Ahmadvand on Friday, April 25, 2014
3-8 pm
 

Private View: 25 April
25 April - 6 May - 2014

Private View: 11 April
11 April - 22 April - 2014

When I first set eyes on the camera viewfinder sixty years ago on a day such as this one, a pact was made between me and the art of photography which continues to this day.  My pact was made initially with a news camera, bringing me closer to humanity by becoming attached to his works, temperament, nature and thoughts.  Eight years passed.  The making of the camera was revolutionised, thus bringing my generation even closer to humanity as we registered his behave ours quicker than ever before.  My generation was the first to set foot in the arena of professional photography accompanied by such a phenomenon.  The art of the photographer and photography took over us body and soul. We swept around the world and captured it.  And in Iran, by having a tool such as the National Iranian Television Organisation at hand with its millions of viewers, I endeavoured to develop and expand modern photography in the country.

Kamran Adle

March, 2014

Private View: 11 April
11 April - 22 April - 2014

Etemad Gallery 2 - Tehran opens in April

We are pleased to announce a second gallery space, Etemad Gallery 2 -Tehran which will open on 11 April 2014 at the same location.
This new gallery will run alongside the current Tehran programme, showcasing the most innovative Iranian artists living and working in Tehran and internationally.

Private View: 7 March
7 March - 11 March - 2014

Geode are geological secondary structures which accur in certain sedimentary and volcanic rocks.

Private View: 21 February
21 February - 28 February - 2014

Neda_Razavipour.pdf

Oscillation is the repetitive variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of equilibrium) or between two or more different states. Oscillations occur not only in mechanical systems but also in biological systems, from human society to the brain.
The oscillation of a body or system with its own natural frequency and under no external influence other than the impulse that initiated the motion is a Free Oscillation.
An oscillation imposed upon a body or system by and with the frequency of some external vibrator and in response to an excitation with a sensibly different frequency is a Forced Oscillation.
If a frictional force (damping) proportional to the velocity of the system is also present, the harmonic oscillator is described as a damped oscillator.

Private View: 7 February
7 February - 18 February - 2014

Painting Exhibition

Private View: 24 January
24 January - 4 February - 2014

Flora_Feizbakhsh.pdf

THE FOURTH CREATION

The previous century with its extraordinary characteristics is considered to be an unparalleled
part of the human history. The industrial revolution, two world wars and the emergence of new
philosophical attitudes, and most importantly, the tensions caused by the two opposing political
ideologies, one promising power to the proletariat and the other, democracy and individual
freedom; have all had a profound effect on what we know today as "modern" art. Regardless of
individual’s positions about what goes on in the colorful deceptive and surface of this
phenomenon, with some contemplation one can understand why the neo classic artists felt
compelled to re-examine the visual world using a complex and at times unintelligible language
in order to achieve the pure art which would be in consistent with the new world.
What occurred in painting at the beginning of this century, including "abstract art", "cubism" and
the use of new mediums, was inuenced by the factors which have lost their novelty for the new
generation of artists. So, today we are witnessing the emergence of new artistic tendencies
which can no longer be judged by the academic rules which governed the art of the previous
centuries.
Contemporary painting is transforming and perhaps, increases in potency as it distances itself
from the creative moulds of the past. There is no doubt that in many instances, the foot prints of
the older schools of thought ranging from the classical, the modernists and the pioneers of the
last century are clearly visible and their presence acts as a reference point for the whole
spectrum of arts in the present era. We are witnessing the presence of a whole generation of
painters who like their predecessors, feel it their duty to free the art of painting from its
constraints, but this time, freedom manifests itself in the form of an unconditional interaction with
all that’s taken place in the past, rather than the analysis of form and gure or abstraction.
Therefore, when we see painters who bravely return to realism in their portrayal of life, it becomes
apparent that the process does not include a search for a new form of expression. Today's
painter portrays what he nds but, his ndings and portrayals must be in harmony with spirit of
the times and use his artistic temperament as an essential tool in a creative process which is
intensely personal and imbued with his artistic spirit.
Flora Feizbakhsh belongs to this generation of painters. Women and their social plight was the
subject of many of her works for many years. In a most delicate yet objective manner, she
depicted the contemporary woman with all her fears, insecurities loneliness and inequalities
forced upon her by the very nature of our societies. Now it seems that, tired of all the screams
and arguments, she has crossed over to a different realm in search of a tranquil silence. Her
recent works portray elements of nature which are deeply rooted in her sub conscience and are
a reection of her inner world. The result is both traditional and yet truly contemporary and sets
her apart from what we have come to expect from Iranian painters in many decades.
What makes her recent works so pleasing to the eye is not only rooted in her feminine sensuality,
but at the very rst glance one becomes aware of a strong sense of internal rhythm achieved
through meditative contemplation. They tell us about a sensitive spirit, quite, relaxed, poetic and
full of eastern promise which through history has been the realm of eastern painters and
illustrators and has at some points inuenced western and especially European art.
Floral ornamentation was common in the Mesopotamian and Greek civilizations and at some
points crossed into the art of painting. The rst examples of oral painting in European art, seems
to be during the renaissance in a painting by Hans Memling, painted 1494. It was followed by
Albrecht Durer in the same year who depicted various elements from nature in his paintings.
Eventually, this interest in nature led to the appearance of "landscape painting" which enjoyed a
prominent position in European art until the early part of 20th century.
During the latter half of the 20th Century, with the advent of "pop art" and its subdivisions "photo
realists" and "hyper realists", painters once again focused their attention to nature. Swiss painter
"Franz Gertsch" and his contemporary, "Gerhard Richter" who produced large melancholic
canvases were amongst these.
The reason that I am pointing out these events in the history of painting is so that I can place the
stature of Flora Feizbakhsh within that context in an era which rightly or wrongly has become
known as "post-modern".

Wahed Khakdan

December, 2013

The first creation was the sky, then water, the third was the earth, and the fourth plant…. and the seventh was Ahuramazda.

Private View: 10 January
10 January - 21 January - 2014

Mostafa_Darehbaghi.pdf

In his work, Mostafa Darehbaghi moves back and forth in time with time taken in its both senses: as a singular physical quantity we measure by clocks or as an environment in which life of men flows (just as water for the fish) and to which all their behaviours, deeds, sayings and constructions are subject.
No matter how placeless the world of Mostafa’s works is or how their atmosphere, mostly temporal, is imbued with purity and simplicity, these works are charged with energy and mobility. Despite the void and ‘neatness’ that comes to eye on first sight and might appear austere or sterile, the works are brimming with a kind of dynamism or even rapture and a hidden anxiety which the viewer recognizes if not mistaken by the neat finishing or the flawless technique. Such (in times) extreme uneasiness hidden under the apparently calm and tranquil surface is the result of a going back and forth. For, this very motion is the artist’s main concern, the persistent movement filling, despite the local limitation and temporal brevity, the abstract space of the work with life.

Mehdi Sahabi

Private View: 10 January
10 January - 20 January - 2014

TalkCloud

Mahmoud Bakhshi

10th - 20th January 2014

Niavaran Art Cultural Center

Private View: 20 December
20 December - 29 December - 2013

Ghazaleh-Avarzamani.pdf

The European Rococo is chiefly considered as an age defined by the search for happiness. Against the backdrop of political, economic and dynastic turmoil in 18th century France, the protagonists of the Rococo sought to portray a world liberated from piety and free from strife, in a landscape where the antidote to earthly woes was sought through flagrant indifference and decadent apathy.

The snapshot of Utopia, those centuries after the Rococo, was to find a derivative in the most unlikely of settings; within the modern Iranian household. By the mid-20th century, Iranians had been embittered by decades of internal strife and victim to centuries of social and political interference from a Western world they feared and admired in equal measure.

One of the most prevalent and aesthetically vibrant manifestations of what later revolutionaries dubbed “gharbzadegi” came in the form of “Gobelins”; these kitsch tapestries depicting idyllic pastoral scenes reminiscent of Rococo paintings, set in ornate gilded frames, embellished Iranian households of all classes. Whether in sprawling villa in the gentrified districts of Tehran or poor working house homes, these relatively cheap, low quality decorations were an aspirational ornament, demonstrative of the householders purported familiarity with luxurious European tastes. They also served as a window into an allegedly “better world”, one where abundance and harmony had muted the vicissitudes of life and allowed for the fulfillment of sensual pleasures. Yet for all their aspirational appeal, Iranian gobelins were rude, derivative, near comical attempts at picturing an imagined Western idyll, and it is this attempt which has formed the center of Avarzamani’s work.

Nima Sagharchi

Private View: 6 December
6 December - 17 December - 2013

History Game curated by Aidin Xankeshipour

I have no introductions for this collaboration.

What could be written has been carried out.

Adding grandiloquence to a clearly obvious matter is something I take heeds to avoid.

I am ecstatic to be the first spectator of the collaboration of 93 painters.

The 93 painters that have played in this game of history, yet managed to keep themselves from getting lost in it. 

In 23 x 15 Centimetres!

A size that previously no person would choose to go for, even by accident has now become Lucian Freud’s attractive proposition for the showing of historical figures in the world of politics.

Figures like the Queen of England, who are not from amongst us, yet imprints of their continual decisions, are borne heavily in the turning of every day, in history and also, in each of our lives.

Aidin Xankeshipour

Autumn, 2013

Private View: 22 November
22 November - 3 December - 2013

Mohsen_Sadeghian1.pdf

Truce

The complete elimination of armed warfare is based on the general rules of the “abandonment of war”. In the current diplomatic language, this expression is used in the dialogue at a time where the disagreeing parties are not in a situation to decide on an official agreement of the “abandonment of war”.
The foundation of the designs was revealed with the proposition of war and the presence of artillery, and then the fight took more of a somewhat poetic tone. “Truce” is a title for the end of my own illusionary war.
Eventually the process of the designs drove me to creating an illusion about an idealistic social order.
I respectfully dedicate this exhibition to Ms Marjaneh Halati.

Mohsen Sadeghian, Autumn 1392

Private View: 8 November
8 November - 19 November - 2013

Aneh-Mohammad-Tatari.pdf

Painting Exhibition

Private View: 25 October
25 October - 5 November - 2013

Laleh-Memar-Ardestani.pdf

As the time runs away in days and minutes, along the road to transformation and evolution, moving away and rejoining, a genesis turns into the beginning of the creation of a contemporaneous being whence she starts to watch her pulse of existence and female identity in this way:
A frame with a complex geometry that is reminiscent of getting upright anew, and a harmoniously woven warp and woof with the beauty and elegance of the universe from the viewpoint of an observatory.

Whence this creature moves to nowhere... one-step forward... one-step backward...now turning...now stopping and going ahead once again.
The road to the colorful earth and heavens... White and weightless, a moment... As if it was nothing but a mere imagination.

The observers exotically watch the pulsating lines and seek to decipher their life code and language.

...

Roots are standing on top of bones. They do not succumb, even to the expense of fragmentation. The roots have got shod and are determined to come out victorious in the battle between yesterday and today, tradition and modernism.

Laleh Memar Ardestani, 2013

Translation by M.T. Faramarzi

Private View: 11 October
11 October - 22 October - 2013

Masoud-Akhavanjam.pdf

We know Masoud Akhavanjam as the collector of modern and contemporary art in Iran. He began buying artworks since three years ago but he could build a great collection which made his name familiar to Tehran art scene. Akhavanjam is fond of Bronze sculptures; during his search for buying such works he couldn’t find what he was really after and that motivated him to create his own series “The Rise”. The series consists of Bronze sculptures that in spite of the simplicity try to translate subjectivity into a visual form. He started working with ceramic when he was fifteen during his residence in Germany. He slowly tended toward Industrial design and followed designing practical objects for home and kitchen as his career during the past seventeen years. Working in this field helped him get familiar with metals and materials and collecting artworks strengthened his taste in art.
“The Rise” is the result of not finding what he was looking for. The abstract forms in Akhavanjam’s works represent the fast and abrupt actions; a creature rising from where it was sited; a hand moving in the air; a man trying to smooth his back and etc. “I liked to visualize the hope for ascension.” He says. What he is longing for is to depart from the passivity and gait towards a new situation but in his way he creates different situations. Here this sudden move wraps around itself and there traversing a circular way finally decides to descend, in some it looks like a human staying behind its veil. Although “The Rise” is trying to picture ascension but it also pictures the struggle and try and errors within. The struggle is to get over passivity but the result is sometimes unfavorable. Yet what is being glorified is the “struggle” itself. The abstract forms in Akhavanjam’s series benefit from a shining, golden and glossy material could be interpreted as monuments in praise of “Effort”; and the effort - even in vain - is more valuable than passivity.

Ali Ettehad

Private View: 9 October
9 October - 9 October - 2013

The issue that I think had an important role in formation of my work content and more content in the form of a personal curiosity seems to me to be on a memory that I had in youth period. We had a house in southern Tehran and to travel to the cemetery was not hard. Always ride with a friend who had a motorbike and went to the cemetery and from behind of the glass of the mortuary we watched dead were being washed. It was war period so dead washers were too busy.
We always with seeing the corpse had tried to guess living identity of corpses. For example I remember that one day I saw a collapsed corpse that during our guess we thought that he must be a construction worker that is burnt with involving in the fire in his work place and now is changed to this shape. And when tomorrow in newspaper events pages that we usually followed to find reason of dead death we saw that he was engineer that in his work place has trapped in another accident and was changed to this shape.
This contrast in whatever that person’s true social identity seems after accident and collapsing, had deep effect in my mind as if with omission of honor margins such as clothes, face or even his skin during accident new independent identity shapes. This past had important role in my curiosity. With scattering and finally with cleaning parts which in speech may be have romantic identity, I try with omitting impurities from clichés definitions such as:
The love, fail, injury, harshness to pass and find more material meaning. If heart in our mind can be crucial factor or affectionate symbol, now it’s another case that certainly containing same meaning, form expand picture from oneself. Totally in analyzing an accident, new worth value manifests that contains past definitions and meaning beside formed identity have been obtained during new accident, such as analyzing.

Farrokh Mahdavi, 2013

Private View: 27 September
27 September - 8 October - 2013

Mona-Paad.pdf

“I see the existent being as the substance weaved around the essence, and the essence as the only certainty of the existence.”

Reverse-bronze-casting a method introduced by “Maestro Parviz Tanavoli”, is the technique I use; to make most of my works. This technique is a mystical journey, and a way to retouch the structures of life. After learning the basics of the “Reverse-bronze-casting” world, I stepped into a vast realm which was not merely a method of making sculptures, but a new way of thinking also.
In the “Reverse-bronze-casting” Technique, the negative space around the sculpture (The mold) is made, not the sculpture itself. And, that is exactly where the name of this technique comes from. In this method, contrary to the ordinary techniques of making sculptures, we think of the non-existent part of the sculpture (negative spaces). Thinking of; how nonexistence could give us, the valuable existence. Each “Reverse-bronze-casting” experience results in merely one sculpture which is a creation that cannot be duplicated because of its complexities. In this very complete, delicate technique, the sculptor does not put together the previously cast parts by joints and welding. Rather, similar to the literature of life, it is an opportunity to put each and every word, through its path of creation, in its very own place. And, it is only at the end of the route (after casting) that the sculpture can be seen. A “Reverse-bronze-casting” sculpture is created in one-piece, and it is a keepsake of the dialogue between tool and sand, sitting in the heart of the mold and recorded on the surface of the sculpture during the molding process. And, this keepsake (unique texture) cannot be attained through any other methods, unless you have experienced part of this journey.

Mona Paad, Fall 2013

Private View: 13 September
13 September - 24 September - 2013

Mehrdad_Mohebali.pdf

HIHISTOTORYRY
History is like a pile, made of different opinions by various historians, each with an equally different station and standpoint, poles apart from the next. They introduce the figures, sometimes as heroes, sometimes false and pretentious and at other times, truthful and honest. Sometimes they are cowards and sometimes they are brave. In some places they are mentioned as being independent freethinkers and in other, as conservatives.
I often think to myself, how are we to learn our lessons from this vague and ambiguous source? If the past truly is the light that guides us towards our future, how can this weak and dim lantern show the path to the future?

Mehrdad Mohebali, 2013

Private View: 30 August
30 August - 10 September - 2013

Kimia_Rahgozar.pdf

For years now, I’ve been carrying my art around with me from one gallery to the next, like a cat carrying her kittens. And each time, I suffer from the fear of alienating one group or another.
This anxiousness led me to start a project where the audience and the subject unite (Photosophy), all the while remaining faithful to the camera and the traditional photographic techniques that I have been so very devoted to throughout my years working as a photographer.
My latest artistic prowls took place all the way across the world in Harlem, New York. There I sought out people who weren't familiar with or couldn't find their way to galleries. Or, maybe, the entrance to these galleries wasn't as wide as they would have liked it to be. It is for these reasons that I decided to bring the artwork to the people -- to engage them in a discussion about how they felt and what they saw the moment the artwork was presented to them. This is how Passerby was born.
Passerby is a documentation of this precious moment, the moment when art is removed from the confines of traditional art spaces and becomes one with the people.

Kimia Rahgozar, August 2013

Private View: 2 August
2 August - 8 August - 2013

From 6 to 10 pm

Painting & Mutimedia Exhibition

Private View: 12 July
12 July - 23 July - 2013

The Artwork, conveys a historical mentality in the imagination of all of us, the attraction of these works and it`s creator are so dignified and untouchable, that imagination of change in their place, even in our unconscious mind, seems impossible.
At this exhibition, I have used hand, to change background of works in order to manipulate its original characteristic, to express modern and different concept. My Hands are doing something in the background of these works, which, neither have been in our historical memory, nor are visible in the works themselves.
Here, by robbing those famous works, hand; is trying to convert it to a fresh accomplishment.

Arash Bahrami, June 2013

Private View: 28 June
28 June - 9 July - 2013

Sahar_Safarian.pdf

Multimedia Exhibition

Private View: 14 June
14 June - 25 June - 2013

Mohammad_Rahimi.pdf

Painting Exhibition

Private View: 12 June
12 June - 12 June - 2013

Gilda_Nowparast.pdf

Limbo
Consider the cold confined space where you cannot differentiate between yourself nor anyone else. Fear and anger juxtapose. It is the border between being approved or denied; a false moment of celebration. Your destination is in limbo indefinitely. Although your body temperature is low, you sweat, constantly aware of your accelerated heartbeat. Only decision and resolution rescue you from angst. When you are scared of being judged, you concentrate more than you should in order to avoid making a mistake or answering inappropriately. Your personal belongings are under close inspection during chaos in order to pass through an invisible door. The tiniest but most significant element of your body, a pattern on your finger, instantly unveils your life. There is a reflection of your face on the glass separating you from your savior or persecutor. Your personality, identity, and mentality have been revolutionized.

Interval
Unaware of the passage of time and uncertain of exact instant they are constantly marching, marching, marching. They are not walking to the future and cannot walk back to the past. They walk in the moment when history doesn’t pursue the contemporary. They’re not recalling anything because there is nothing to remember. There is no sensation to observe because an emotion doesn’t penetrate the strength of mind. They are only subjects of a repetitive existence using perpetual objects. They are unable to envision intervals. Reminiscent of an Achaemenid relief sculpture, they are holding objects that have mostly gone through the process of urbanization. The practice of the objects is the same but their appearance is transformed through the shift of modern life. The most pivotal second is not near at all.

Private View: 24 May
24 May - 2 June - 2013

Amir_Mokhber_Yousha_Bashir.pdf

Yousha Bashir | No Mind

Amir Mokhber | Untitled

Private View: 10 May
10 May - 21 May - 2013

{...} If one looks at the way in which Ahmadi’s work has developed, one sees him gradually shedding western influences, and becoming more specifically Iranian as he does so. His most recent series – Archaic Techniques of Lovemaking, Miraj and Ark of Salvation – refer to Iranian book art, but could never, even at their most figurative, be thought of as direct copies. I say ‘even at their most figurative’ because one of the fascinating things about these paintings is the way they slide in and out of figurative representation. The figures, where present, are wraiths: they convince the spectator that they are not so much the artist’s invention as figments of his or her own imagination, prompted by a few brush marks on canvas.
In fact, one of the things that distinguishes Ahmadi’s work is the confident elegance of the facture. He has been able to translate the swift, confident elegance of Iranian penmanship into terms that suit working in acrylic on canvas. Much contemporary art appropriates from previous styles, often it must be said in a leaden and clumsy way. This could never be said of Ahmadi’s work, which is joyously swift and confident. He takes from the past, but never imitates it.

                                                                                                                                                                                      Edward Lucie-Smith

Private View: 26 April
26 April - 7 May - 2013

Elnaz Farajollahi: The Female Gaze in hybridised portraiture

by Jareh Das

Introduction

Iranian painter Elnaz Farajollahi works mainly in a style that can be described as a ‘hybridised form of portraiture’. This style fuses traditional portraiture with more contemporary elements, setting a scene that tethers between the worlds of the imagined and the real. Faces are defined within a frame that sometimes consists of hair, skin, fur and glitter, making the surface quality of Farajollahi’s paintings vibrant and vivid on the eyes. These paintings are mixed media works consisting mainly of acrylic work with the added element of glitter, a material associated with youthful vivaciousness.

The artist fuses autobiographical elements of the self and the role of women in contemporary society in her works, making the subject of ‘femininity’ a key element in her practice. Farajollahi’s paintings constantly shift between the boundaries of stereotypical perception of women and a woman’s cognition of her place within the world.

For several years, Farajollahi has explored (through painting), an outward visual manifestation of inner cognitions of the female figure. Some of these new paintings have a distinct characteristic which sees the artist place herself or women she knows in the paintings. These new works from a departure from previous works as here, some of the females distinctively have no mouths. This symbolic representation of ‘the lack of voice’ or ‘lack of identity, within the context of her homeland is echoed across the world where women are still regarded as second-class citizens (to men). In this series, geographical mappings are visual manifestations of Farajollahi’s interaction with the city from a socio-political and geographical point of view. Elnaz uses the body as a means for mapping out a cross-section of women living in different parts of the city today.

There are two identifiable themes present in her ongoing portraiture studies: the female gaze and the historiography of the female figure within a context of Iran. This essay reflects on these key themes as manifested in recent works by Farajollahi.

Women artists have been involved in art making throughout history and have face challenges due to gender biases in the mainstream art world. Although we see the recognition of women artists being re-written into the canon of art history, a younger generation like Elnaz need to remind us that this battle for recognition is far from over but we can only aspire that one day, artistic talent will be based on the work of art and not continually based on gender, amongst other forms of devaluing great art.

The Female Gaze

In her seminal 1975 essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Laura Mulvey introduced the concept of "male gaze" as a feature of gender power asymmetry in film. Mulvey states that women were objectified (in film) because heterosexual men were in control of the camera. She goes on to explain that a woman is viewed as an erotic object for both the characters within the film, as well as the viewer of the film. The man emerges as the dominant power within the created film fantasy. Mulvey's essay also states that the female gaze is the same as the male gaze. This means that women look at themselves through the eyes of men.

Taking this second-wave feminist viewpoint into consideration and as a means of understanding the persistent presence of ‘the female gaze’ in the paintings of Farajollahi, one can read her placing herself as subject matter in the work as a function that gives a dual quality to the phenomena of gazing. These works can be read as a manifestation of perception from others but also as the artist’s manifestation of looking inwards or analysing her place within the world. Farajollahi explains this further by affirming that portraiture is not always about an image of the inside looking out. Portraits, especially self-portraits, she feels can act like mirrors. She also describes her body of works poetically as tiny shards of mirrors that project a fragmented image of a whole based on a specific place at a certain period.  As a young woman living and working in Tehran, her works are influenced by the contradictions present in her society, and through painting, she is able to use it as a means of catharsis or rather art as a means of cleansing or comprehending these contradictions.

Akin to the Mulvey essay, the artist acknowledges the fact that she is a woman who grew up in a strict patriarchal society which causes her to look at herself through a male lens. However, she also strongly adheres to the opposing feminist perspective of having a profound awareness of this male ‘gaze’ and fighting or standing up patriarchy. Paintings can be likened to war paint, a dressing up of the self or as a visual armour standing up against patriarchy through inverting this gaze, by making it something that looks both inward and outwards simultaneously.

Historiography of the female in Iranian society today

Historiography is defined as the writing of history; especially: the writing of history based on the critical examination of sources, the selection of particulars from the authentic materials, and the synthesis of particulars into a narrative that will stand the test of critical methods[1]. Elnaz’s historiography of the contemporary female in Iran, acts as a catalyst for introducing into the history of contemporary Iran, common modes of thinking and living within a given context.

Traditionally, young women who are unmarried live in the home of parents and gain independence after marriage. She reinterprets this through her paintings of a contemporary female figure, with trendy clothes, sunglasses to disguise the eyes, absent mouth superimposed onto a background of worlds it motion. It is as if the artist comments on past traditions colliding with the present, leaving the individual in a confused tug of war between past and present. Farajollahi succinctly summarises this individual conflict by stating that:

Even though I live in Iran and I am at home most of the time, like most Iranian girls we all feed off contemporary visual sources, through the Internet and other media. Girls here dress up, make up their faces and go out and socialise with friends in closed spaces but at the same time ever conscious of the world that exists outside of them”. In relation to my recent work, I am that same girl with reference to my visual memory filled with information that I am fed through the media adding the visual concepts that I receive in the streets of Tehran. A Tehran that’s in a continuous flux, constantly changing on the surface with new circumstances which take place every day and affect us whether we accept them or not. A geography, which changes with the politics and one, we can see on the map.

One could interpret these new paintings as a personal but cultural mapping of place (i.e. Tehran) as it is experienced through the individual. The artist carefully writes into the history of contemporary Iran, a historical account of the place women occupy in society by presenting, mostly her generation, and how this group engage culturally within the city limits. Through painting, Farajollahi is documenting a visual history of Iran today and bringing to the foreground what may usually be subverted or overlooked, as more often than none, the female perspective is marginally undermined by that of the male.

Although the artist draws inspiration from media and popular culture, and previous works have focused on animalistic and primitive associations between humans and animals, these new paintings that make up the exhibition Tehran: A Historical Geography shows maturity in the practice of Elnaz Farajollahi. She has begun to visually represent and locate the city within the works which comments on global notions of the individual within the world. These works are more critical not just of the roles of women in Iran, but roles of women universally. They portray the realities of women and the continuing conflict between how society sees women and how women see themselves within a societal framework.

For an emerging artist who could easily slip into a signatory aesthetic style, it is refreshing to witness Farajollahi challenging the limitations of her practice and placing her framework into a more culturally engaging sphere that echoes with second-wave feminist theories which look at constructed narratives of the gender.

Elnaz Farajollahi

Born in 1984, Tehran, Iran

Education

2007 BA in Painting, Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2001 Diploma of Graphic Design, Visual Art School, Tehran, Iran

Solo Exhibition:

2011 Reading The Stars, Etemad Gallery, Tehran, Iran

Group Exhibition:

2012 Mis-en-Scene: A group exhibition of Contemporary Iranian Art, Etemad Gallery, Dubai, UAE

Private View: 1 March
1 March - 12 March - 2013

Untitled | Hoda Kashiha

The Final Landscapes | Yasaman Safa

Private View: 15 February
15 February - 26 February - 2013

Clash | Omid Masoumi

On the Rise, It Putrefies | Raheleh Nooravar

Private View: 1 February
1 February - 12 February - 2013

Private View: 18 January
18 January - 29 January - 2013

Sculpture Exhibition by Alireza Masoomi

Painting Exhibition by Mostafa Choobtarash

Private View: 4 January
4 January - 15 January - 2013

Till today, horses have always been present in the “field” of my paintings. At first, the horses would stride the pasture in their own natural patterns; Yet later on, this field would become the field of my life, a space with it’s own geographical coordinates, language, passion and regrets.

The field would become more clamoured and turbulent as the days went by…

This time I gave my horses the chance to rebel or adjust themselves to the current rules of the field. One strives to be the fastest the same way its ancestors did and another blindly continues to stick with its traditional patient stride.

How long will this repetition continue? Is there a meaning to it all? Will there be ascension? Is there creativity involved? Could repetition and creation become one? When did it all begin, and is all else an illusion?

Private View: 21 December
21 December - 1 January - 2013

Neurosis includes a collection of mental disorders that have not yet reached the level that require the patient to start seeking serious and intensive help and treatment of psychologists. Confusion and stress in their different shapes and forms, hidden and apparent, are among the most important and common factors that cause neurosis.

Culture and the way human relations are treated in the contemporary societies inevitably increase the level of stress generation in every single person of that society. Thus, neurosis could be considered a public problem and the slope of its curve is rising with the passage of time. But to combat this situation, humankind has always been searching for peace and tranquility. It is not unexpected then that contemporary human beings in such situations, to avoid or even deny their internal stress, grasp in temporary solutions like taking tranquilizer drugs such as Chlordiazepoxide so they can reach a kind of peace mixed with oblivion and carelessness. 

Neurosis 

Performance by Javad Safari

Thursday, December 27, 2012 and Friday, December 28, 2012 – from 6 to 7 pm

Private View: 7 December
7 December - 18 December - 2012

Sculpture Exhibition

Private View: 30 November
30 November - 5 December - 2012

Painting Exhibition by Ashkan Abdoli and Mohammad Hossein Fathollahi

Private View: 9 November
9 November - 20 November - 2012

The winters of Vancouver and their long nights were the impetus for these series. I must admit, the time I spent on these paintings were some of the most joyous times of my life. The idea of collaborating with the artists of the past in a quiet corner was an experience different from the hours I spent in the noisy space of my sculpture studio.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Parviz Tanavoli

Private View: 26 October
26 October - 6 November - 2012

Playfulness, experimentation, her innate poetry, her solitude, and her candid simplicity has made her a self-taught painter. She does not care for longwinded sentences and lofty praise.

Shahpari Behzadi works in a quiet, unpretentious style that is uncommon in her domain. She and I were neighbors and companions for several years. My knowledge and views of her work concerns two periods:

The first period, compared to earlier experiences, reveals a more refined insight and wisdom. Her works—created through a process that begins by deepening backgrounds, and ends with a subtle transformation—speaks to the viewerin an abstract language that is at once unmediated and intimate. For herself, the works are a reflection of nature, glimmering with light and shadow.

The second period, part of which is included at this exhibition, continues the sense and experiences of the preceding period, in a new way. This time, across the swathe of deepened background, colorful objects punctuate an unknown time and place: the objects are utilitarian, or architectural shapes reduced to their simplest lines, or organic forms. The presence of these objects, and the way they are executed, lends Shahpari’s works of this period a mysterious, symbolist quality. Exploring the world inside, untraditional experimentation, and a clear influence of social events, are emphases of this period. 

Private View: 12 October
12 October - 23 October - 2012

A very old and everyday question, yet for me it is always renewed.

I get a mixed feeling of unknown anxiety at the start of each painting due to my ignorance of reality and distance from the truth. The anxiety slowly turns into a peaceful conviction, the certainty of ignorance, and the ephemeral reality of the images of truth. The only real truth is the image which remains, in the passion of imitation, in the heat of representation.

But representing what?

A delusional truth, a dream disguised as real, in all the totality which I know to be life yet always covered in a veil of illusion, a dreamlike reality and a truthful dream.

And the conclusion: the image itself that arises from the war and retreat of reality vs. dream, the image that is the only truth, the only thing, which I know to be true. And as I look on to that which I have chosen in my painterly asceticism out of all the infinite possibilities, eliminating all else… the single image.

This is the only reality which remains, but is it a real image?

I become a prisoner in my continuing struggle with the concept.

My paintings are a result of this struggle, a reality that is subdued and vanquished by dreams, and a dream that is suppressed by reality, a reality that is never realised and a dream that is never seen.

Thirty years of dreaming, the thirtieth year of my dreams.

Private View: 28 September
28 September - 9 October - 2012

Martin Werthmann produces sculptures that act as an investigative point of entry into the world of artistic processes. His often large-scale installations seem straight forward when first encountered but upon closer examination, their complexities become apparent. Werthmann's approach can be described as part science and part alchemy as installations taken on an experimental ethos of which results are revealed during the course of an exhibition.

For his solo exhibition at Etemad Gallery-Tehran, Martin Werthman will present his installation: "Diamond Breathing Machine", a laboratory setting which is used to isolate the carbon out of the breath and then pressed into a diamond, also a new series of large scale woodblock prints produced specifically for his inaugural Tehran exhibition "Folie à deux".

Martin Werthman currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. He studied at the Academy of fine Arts in Hamburg under Andreas Slominski and later on with Wim Wenders, Fatih Akin, and Daniel Richter.

In 2007, he participated in a major project at Documenta 12 in Kassel, and has exhibited extensively in Europe where his works are part of prominent private and public collections.

Private View: 14 September
14 September - 25 September - 2012

Myriam Quiel is a German-Iranian artist currently residing in Tehran with her husband and child for the past three to four years. She paints all that she sees during her daily excursions in her neighborhood in a completely personalized style. Although she uses photographic documentation as a means of creating her paintings, conceptually she is inspired by Quantum theories such as Heisenberg’s principal of Uncertainty. Though not a philosopher herself, being raised in the same region as the father of modern philosophy has clearly left its trace, causing her to observe and perceive the world from a somewhat philosophical viewpoint.

Parviz Kalantari

Private View: 31 August
31 August - 11 September - 2012

Sculpture exhibition by Vishka Assayesh

Painting exhibition by Zeinab Hashemi

Private View: 13 July
13 July - 24 July - 2012

The world today is a global one, integrating people from diverse backgrounds together as a whole so that even if we are not in a particular place at a specific time, we remain attached to events through various means of communication.
The ongoing issues of the Arab Spring may seem only to concern the people of these countries but we all re-live these events courtesy of the media (internet, tv, radio etc) and inherently become part of them.
The series of works by the group Varagh(students of Parviz Tanavoli) take on a different approach as they use the “Arab Spring” as a point of departure whilst utilising the media and other material to execute their ideas which are then manifested in a variety of ways.
Artists in this show were recently mentioned as part of a research talk Art & Politics/The Arab Spring at the 43rd Art Basel Art Fair, 2012.

Private View: 29 June
29 June - 10 July - 2012

Shahla Ahmadi Moghaddam’s recent paintings possess a quality, which separate them from aimless and merely decorative styles.

They have a romantic air about them, with colorful backgrounds and divisions covering up the previously excited brushstrokes.

Her symbolic choice in using birds and spreading them happily across the canvas and their fusion with invented plants and other natural patterns has created a nearly ritualistic atmosphere.

Looking at them from a different perspective, we can easily detect the delicate influence and her conscious look towards Persian illustration; a ground well known, full of old floral and bird-like patterns bonding the art of the Iranian artist with eastern philosophy.

Private View: 15 June
15 June - 26 June - 2012

Enemy by Hassan Razghandi

Private View: 1 June
1 June - 12 June - 2012

Painting Exhibition by

Shirin Ghandchi

Ali Ghaemi

Private View: 18 May
18 May - 29 May - 2012

I Scream by Mohsen Ahmadvand

Private View: 4 May
4 May - 15 May - 2012

Painting Exhibition by Alireza Masoumi

Private View: 20 April
20 April - 1 May - 2012

Pooya Razi's paintings focuses on the relationships that exist between shadows and objects.

Razi is interested in the cognitive relationships between people and objects which he captures in these series of haunting paintings.

The artist describes shadows as visual paradoxes that exist as we see them. They can only be distinguished against their surrounding space due to diffusion of light.

In Razi's view, this behavior of shadows can be used to question sacrosanct beliefs and fears.

Private View: 13 April
13 April - 18 April - 2012

In his latest series Vahid Sharifian has chosen the subject of Joy and War as the backgrounds of his works but not in their usual form. There are no signs of conflict in his colourful palette and the difference between growth and destruction in his flowers are not easily distinguished.
Sharifian has depicted the current situation in  its full complexities and insecurities, with the same ridiculous absurdity as it actually is.  With his usual humour, he critically illustrates the complicated values and disvalues of war and like an unsolved riddle, leaves the viewer to decide the verdict.
The artist extensively exhibited at venues internationally including the Chelsea Art Museum (New York), The Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac (Paris) and Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art (Copenhagen).Sharifian is featured in the book; "100 New Artists" (Laurence King, 2011) by Francesca Gavin.

Private View: 2 March
2 March - 13 March - 2012

Photo Exhibition by Niloufar Banisadr

Artist Talk

March 7, 2012

4:00 - 6:00 pm  Etemad Gallery-Tahran

Private View: 17 February
17 February - 28 February - 2012

Following on from a previous exhibition, Engaged Artist at The Saatchi Gallery London, Recycle brings together previous works and a new installation by Iranian artist, Mahmoud Bakhshi. This solo exhibition concentrates on the new wave of popularity of artists and their role in contemporary society.

The main inspiration for Mahmoud Bakhshi's works comes from political and social issues in Iran, which he sets up as propositions in his extensive practice of sculpture, mixed media, film and paintings. Bakhshi invites the viewer to seek answers in his works, as he makes connections between present and past histories of his country. Bakhshi’s works are investigations that are highly informed and experiential.

Bakhshi was born on 1977 in Tehran, Iran. Mahmoud Bakhshi has participated in several exhibitions locally and internationally at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Barbican, London, Museum of New Art, Freiburg, Auckland Triennial and Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris. His works are part of the Tate Modern and other private collections. 

Private View: 3 February
3 February - 13 February - 2012

 A group exhibition of works by Arash Fesharaki, Reza Onsori and Hans

Private View: 20 January
20 January - 31 January - 2012

Etemad gallery is proud to announce an exhibition of recent paintings by Iranian artist Aryan Lavasani. Aryan Lavasani's paintings are what he describes as his personal language and means of expression.These works, a reference to the artist's surrealist influences. The language of art is philosophical, investigative and a critic of contemporary realities.

Private View: 6 January
6 January - 17 January - 2012

Private View: 16 December
16 December - 21 December - 2011

Private View 16 December 2011, 3-8 pm

The exhibition continues until 21 December 2011

A Performance by Kimia Rahgozar curated by Jose P Vargas. Precisely, the Photosophy concept is to create eternal life, immortalizing its protagonists by recording images through polarization of pure light. An instance lapse of time recorded forever.

Private View: 9 December
9 December - 14 December - 2011

Working specifically with Persian rug making techniques, Parviz Tanavoli focuses on pictorial designs and gabbehs. Tanavoli's pictorial rugs are related to the history of this practice Iran, which spans varied practices akin to those found in south-western Iran to the Zagros Mountains region of the country.

For this exhibition, Tanavoli refocuses the attention to a dying practice, which is centuries-old. The history of Persian rugs re-interpreted for a contemporary audience.

18 November - 29 November - 2011

Etemad gallery Tehran is proud to present the latest series of works by Aneh Mohammad Tatari on 18 November 2011 between 3-8 pm. The exhibition continues until 29 November 2011.
 

To begin, we must speak a few words of Traditional Arts. It is mostly concerned with unification and people, and that all major religions branch out from one divine source. They all have one inner meaning, yet are so different on the surface. Footsteps of the original eternal knowledge can be traced in them all. These are the common points in all religions that flow in the nature of all human beings.
 

No mystery is revealed effortlessly in the domain of traditional arts; Instead it aims to create beautiful works of art in the realms of imagination and typically utilizes secrets and codes in the form of signs and symbols to find that common ground and unity or life without borders so to speak.
 

For instance, in all far-eastern artwork there has been specific attention focused on the concept of light. e.g. The Moon receives light from the Sun during the night.Sheikh Al-Ishraq (Suhrawardi) believes that all life is dependent on light because light is all that truly exists. This belief is the very focal point, common amongst all faiths, which can bring together and connect other artists as well - A.M Tatari

1 November - 9 November - 2011

Opening: Friday Nov. 4, 2011 from 3-8 pm

The exhibition will be on view till Nov. 15, 2011

19 October - 26 October - 2011

4 October - 12 October - 2011

1 September - 7 September - 2011

6 July - 13 July - 2011

17 June - 24 June - 2011

Born in Iran - Tabriz 1978
Art Diploma, " Mirak"Visual Arts School, Iran- Tabriz 1992-1996
Member of The Society of Iranian Sculptors.

7 June - 16 June - 2011

Mahtab Firouzabadi's recent paintings are abstract representations of a natural sight; a geometric abstraction of triangles and ragged surfaces. She utilizes those sentimental momentary moves of flowing colors with different thicknesses to resemble river flows in aerial scopes while as the fluid is runny so she can hide some of this poetics beneath more simpler surfaces; sometimes they pause the dynamic yet sometimes they tend to emphasize them.