Six Weeks of Iranian Art spans three generations and during the lives of these generations, Iran went through traumatic and unsettling times. When reviewing Iran (originally called Persia) from an art historical context, that which immediately comes to mind is the traditional miniatures that explored a multitude of subjects ranging from religious to quotidian. It was an art identifiable with a culture. This series of exhibitions rises above political references and concerns to focus on the equalization of cultures.
Michele Foucault saw in the Iranian condition hope for a new and revitalised way of living. He spoke of the Iranians in the following terms; there was “literally a light that lit up all of them, that bathed all of them at the same time.” I see this light as well – an enthusiasm that ranges from modernism to the post-modern conversation currently engaged in the light of the cultural diversity that makes up the Canadian demographic. Art is a language available that allows for incandescence and this series of exhibitions celebrates the visual articulation between cultures.
Mohsen Vaziri Moghadam, an octogenarian, experienced the beginnings of the change from the traditional to the modern and is known, as a result, as one of the first Iranian Modernist painters. With an active practice, his work made inroads through abstraction concurrent with the sweeping movements felt throughout the western world. His work is brave, accomplished and ambitious with periodical bursts of wit lending an energetic tempo to his visual melody. Grand in scale and slick in execution, he has taken his place amongst the acclaimed artists who have forged their own uniqueness from depiction to abstraction.
Mahmoud Meraji’s modernist intonation could be compared to that of Europe during the early twentieth century and yet there is a fresh and curious difference as if he is truly attempting to create a new reality, a new concept of the self. Mahmoud’s ongoing search for a visual language that will express his understanding of himself as an artist of Iranian heritage has kept alive corresponding disciplines with his portraiture shadowed by his modernist oeuvre. As Mahmoud pushes the boundaries of his art work ever outwards, the limits of his experience are ever widening.
Pooyan Tabatabaei is, generationally, the bridge between Mahmoud Meraji, the father and Mehrad Meraji, the son. His work shifts from modernism to postmodernism. Tabatabatei’s chooses as subject matter the most powerful symbol of Iranian specificity – the veil, the chador. Within his photographs, his quest for understanding this potent visual signifier set in the snowy parkland of Canada transcends the symbolic association, achieving an aesthetic meaning more about beauty than specificity.
Mehrad Meraji’s perspective has been shaped by the nurturing influences of his Iranian home and the exposure he has gained as a young adult experiencing the art education of the western world. There is an open faced freshness in his large scale portraits. He is clear in his enthusiasm and confidence. He is living the life of an artist, drawing the large personalities of the people around him and he is reflecting faces that are first and foremost human and lovely. The identity, without the knowledge of the sitter’s heritage, is not as important as the bravado with which he embraces the gift of life.
The third exhibition on the summer schedule, Iranian Artist’s Cultural Reunion acknowledges the generational and stylistic differences, gathered under an umbrella that is of pride to them all – Six Weeks of Iranian Art. This series of exhibitions bridges gaps and opens doors between cultures. It allows our curiosity an open range for exploration by extending a warm invitation into the Iranian culture. And what better place to host than in the world of fine arts!
Julie Oakes
Six weeks of Iraninan show
Pooyan Tabatabaei
Headbones Gallery
Mohsen Vaziri Moghadam
Mahmoud Meraji
Behzad Adineh
Stephen Harper
Prime Minster of Canada
David Miller
Mayor of Toronto
Toronto Star
At the galleries
Jul 14, 2007 04:30 AM
Six Weeks of Iranian Art (Headbones Gallery, 260 Carlaw Ave. Unit 102) is a summer group show with a difference. It's on a mission to "aid and represent Iranian artists in this multicultural society," says Pooyan Tabatabaei, the show's organizer and the first artist showing – he's a realist photographer – from tomorrow to Aug. 27.
Some smart marketing is involved as well. For starters, there's a potentially receptive audience with some 85,000 Iranian-Canadians in the GTA, a sizeable portion of the 120,000-strong community across the entire country, says Tabatabaei.
Secondly, the show can count on the high regard for all forms of Iranian art in this area due in part to the superb movie-making by Abbas Kiarostami and other leading Iranian directors whose work has appeared at various festivals around town.
Some exquisite Iranian pieces will remain in Toronto permanently, as part of the Aga Khan collection, now showing in London, and which opens at the Aga Khan Museum here in 2010.
Mahmoud Meraji's show of paintings, "Mystic Iranian Curves," is at Headbones Gallery July 27-Aug. 3, then a group show with the exciting new photographer, Sadegh Tirafkan, Aug.4-15, followed by work from Mohesen Vaziri Moghadam, Aug.18-27.
Peter Goddard
CHN
Cultural heritage news agency
Six Weeks of Iranian Art to be Held in Toronto
Tehran, 7 July 2007 (CHN Foreign Desk) – Headbones Gallery in Toronto will host the exhibition of Six weeks of Iranian Art from July 15 to August 27, 2007. A variety of Iranian artistic works, as well as unique live performances, live music, and theatrical shows in different settings will be performed in this exhibition. Various aspects of Iranian culture and heritage will be also represented in the exhibition through displaying a large number of visual works such as photography, painting, and sculpture.
According to organizers of this exhibition, preserving and promulgating Iranian cultural and intellectual heritage in the Iranian as well as Canadian community is one of the main aims of holding this exhibition. Providing an appropriate channel for communication and dialogue for the Iranian community and promoting interaction amongst art members within the context of the Canadian art society are among the other goals for organizing such an exhibition.
The exhibition will be consisted from four sections including: Journey through my Imagination which be held from July 15 to July 25, in which works of Pooyan Tabatabaei, an emerging photographer with international recognition who mostly works on social issues with an artistic an unique vision, will be displayed.
Mystic Iranian Curve would be the second exhibition which will be held from July 27 and will run to 3rd of August. The works of Mahmoud Meraji, who is an established painter with more than 30 years experience, will be represented in this solo show. His works are the results of blending lines and curves of eastern patterns into modernism, which have resulted in creating distinctive pieces.
During the art show of Iranian Artists’ Cultural Reunion which will be held from August 4 to August 15, a collaboration of seven artists, coming from various backgrounds and diverse styles who are united by their Iranian heritage and culture will be displayed. The exhibition will be consisted from the works of Sadegh Tirafkan, photographer, Mehrad Meraji, painter, Shahmsi Shahrokhi, painter, Behzad Adineh, mixed media, Mahmoud Meraji, painter, Pooyan Tabatabaei, photographer, and Ali Kamran, graphic designer.
Clusters of Light would be the next series of exhibition which will be held from August 18 to August 27, during which works of Mohsen Vaziri Moghadam, pioneer of Iranian modern art in Toronto, who will travel from Rome to Toronto to take part in this exhibition will be displayed.
An east-end Toronto gallery hopes its summer exhibition "Six Weeks of Iranian Art" will help give exposure to Iranian artists in Canada.
The Headbones Gallery's exhibition opener, "Journey Through My Imagination" which runs until July 25, puts the spotlight on Pooyan Tabatabaei, a photographer whose works are mostly "based on social issues with an artistic and unique vision." See headbonesgallery.com
TORONTO (CP) - An east-end Toronto gallery hopes its summer exhibition "Six Weeks of Iranian Art" will help give some Iranian artists in Canada the exposure they deserve.
The Headbones Gallery calls the show "the first step towards familiarizing the community with the modernism movement of the Iranian-Canadian artists that may have gone unnoticed due to lack of proper exposure."
The exhibition opener, "Journey Through My Imagination" which runs until July 25, puts the spotlight on Pooyan Tabatabaei, a photographer whose works are mostly "based on social issues with an artistic and unique vision," the gallery says.
"Mystic Iranian Curves," from July 27 to Aug. 3, will display paintings by Mahmoud Meraji, whose work "is the result of blending lines and curves of eastern patterns into modernism, creating distinctive pieces."
"Iranian Artists' Cultural Reunion," from Aug. 4 to 15, is a collaboration of seven artists in fields including photography, painting and mixed media.
"Clusters of Light," Aug. 18-27, presents works by Mohesen Vaziri Moghadam, who the gallery describes as "a pioneer of Iranian modern art" and is currently based in Rome, Italy.
Travel - Saturday, July 21, 2007 @ 00:00
An east-end Toronto gallery hopes its summer exhibition "Six Weeks of Iranian Art" will help give some Iranian artists in Canada the exposure they deserve.
The Headbones Gallery calls the show "the first step towards familiarizing the community with the modernism movement of the Iranian-Canadian artists that may have gone unnoticed due to lack of proper exposure.
"
The opener, "Journey Through My Imagination" until July 25, puts the spotlight on Pooyan Tabatabaei, a photographer whose works are mostly "based on social issues with an artistic and unique vision," the gallery says.
"Mystic Iranian Curves," from July 27 to Aug. 3, will display paintings by Mahmoud Meraji, whose work "is the result of blending lines and curves of eastern patterns into modernism, creating distinctive pieces."
TORONTO (CP) — An east-end Toronto gallery hopes its summer exhibition Six Weeks of Iranian Art will help give some Iranian artists in Canada the exposure they deserve.
The Headbones Gallery calls the show "the first step towards familiarizing the community with the modernism movement of the Iranian-Canadian artists that may have gone unnoticed due to lack of proper exposure."
The exhibition opener, Journey Through My Imagination, runs until July 25; Mystic Iranian Curves, July 27-Aug. 3; Iranian Artists’ Cultural Reunion runs Aug. 4-15; and Clusters of Light, Aug. 18-27.
Vaziri’s “Clusters of Light” shines down on Toronto
TEHRAN, Aug. 21 (MNA) -- The Six Weeks of Iranian Art exhibit currently underway at the Headbones Gallery in Toronto wraps up with “Clusters of Light” by Mohsen Vaziri-Moqaddam.
The exhibit, which opened on August 18, is displaying a collection of sand works and artworks created by Vaziri-Moqaddam in Iran between 1960 and 1964.
Vaziri-Moqaddam is also completing one of his sand works during the ten-day exhibit.
Director Pooyan Tabatabaei’s documentary on the Iranian artist, “A Painter Who Did Not Like Paintings”, was screened at the opening ceremony.
Paintings and photos by Iranian artists Sadeq Tir-Afkan, Mahmud Meraji, Ali Kamran, Behzad Adineh, and Pooyan Tabatabaei were also displayed at the Six Weeks of Iranian Art exhibit.
Mohsen Vaziri-Moqaddam was born on May 26, 1924 in Tehran. In primary school, Mohsen was fond of geography and music courses. He continued his studies at the University of Tehran’s Faculty of Fine Arts. In 1955, he set off for Italy, where he studied at the Rome Academy of Fine Arts.
He showed a tendency toward sculpture in the late 1960s, which was the most significant part of his life. His unique sculptural works during this period, in which the feeling of touch was transferred to visual lines, were unparalleled in Italy.
In his career, Vaziri-Moqaddam has created the most abstract forms and designs using the media of sand, metal, plastic, and wood.
The Italy-based artist was commended for his works at the Rome Municipality and was presented the European Artist of the Year 2005 award in Rome on December 14, 2005.
RM/HG
END
MNA
Clusters of Light
Mohsen Vaziri Moghadam
Host: Mrs. Rad
Canada to exhibit modern Iranian art
An Iranian veteran modernist painter has displayed his life-long artworks during a 10-day event in Headbones Gallery, in Toronto, Canada.
Mohsen Vaziri Moghaddam has presented sand-made works, three sculptures and the works he created from 1960 to 1964.
The exhibition titled the Clusters of Light opened August 18 as the final stage of a Toronto six-week art event, which showcased Iranian artworks.
Despite his visual problems, Mohsen Vaziri will recreate a sand-made sculpture during the event.
Mohsen Vaziri Moghaddam is a Persian painter and professor of art who has been one of the pioneers of Iran's avant-garde art movement.
TE/HGH/RE
All rights reserved for New Vision Productions Inc. 2007
