pooya aryanpour - Sophia Contemporary Gallery

POOYA ARYANPOUR
Under the Shell
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POOYA ARYANPOUR
Under the Shell
10 June – 21 July 2016
SOPHIA CONTEMPORARY GALLERY
11 Grosvenor Street, Mayfair, London, W1K 4QB, UK
www.sophiacontemporary.com
POOYA ARYANPOUR
Born in Tehran, Iran in 1971, Pooya Aryanpour obtained a B.A. and M.A. in Painting at
the School of Plastic Arts and at the Azad University, Tehran, Iran. He currently lives and
works in Tehran and teaches Painting, Drawing and Art History at Azad University, Tehran. Pooya Aryanpour’s intellectual grounding in Persian cultural symbols and artistic
techniques, coupled with his exploration of abstract art create artworks where colour
and line, form and content unite to create a mysterious whole infused with mysticism and
suspense. Abstract shapes and vivid colours harmoniously morph and fuse to become
new forms: organisms, architectural constructions, maps, flowers, letters... The artist
crystallizes for a moment in time the vaporous natural forms and fleeting symbols of the
world before they dissolve into ether.
Aryanpour’s practice is preoccupied with the exploration of painterly and sculptural
abstraction and the relationship between humans and their natural environment. As he
explains “I have always tried to find the romance and poetry in shapes and colours and explore
their properties.”. The artist questions the philosophical and artistic ideals of finitude
and perfection by deconstructing reality and emphasizing the inherent gaps in human
perception. For the artist, nothing is ever complete, reality is in a constant and neverending state of flux and evolution. His artworks are therefore ‘accidental events’, dynamic
creations subject to change.
Aryanpour’s mirror sculptures explore this sense of fluidity and instability. The tradition
of mirror works (ayeneh-kari) in Iran takes its roots in the ceilings of Iranian mosques,
which are often covered in highly elaborate mirror mosaics, representing the heavens and
the worship of God. While the artist also uses the traditional craftsmanship of ayenehkari to create his contemporary art works, he is the first Iranian artist who has chosen
to use the medium to depict non-religious concepts. By replacing the sacred with the
profane, for example through his use of the human body as a subject matter, Aryanpour’s
sculptures contradict and subvert the original notion of ayeneh-kari.
Pooya Aryanpour grew up in Tehran in a family of academics. His father is an emblematic
figure of Iran’s intellectual sphere and a pioneer in adapting modern social sciences to
the Iranian context in the 1960s. The artist experienced an unusual upbringing and was
home schooled from childhood in order to learn about life and art through freedom and
self-discovery. His upbringing is reflected in his artworks, which aim to search for ‘truth
by deconstruction at the visible.' Aryanpour’s work draws its conceptual roots in Jacques
Derrida’s theory of ‘Deconstructivism’, which his father helped introduce to the Iranian
academia and which shaped the artist’s philosophical and artistic vision.
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FOREWORD
Christa Paula
With the end of the war in 1988, the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 and the election of
“….on the one hand it is what it is, and on the other hand it is not what it is.”
Amir-Hossein Aryanpour, Two Logics, (Do man eq), Tehran, 1979, referring to dynamic phenomena
Rafsanjani to the presidency in the same year, restrictions on self-expression gradually eased
and the fissures between public and private spheres again narrowed. Rafsanjani’s period of
reconstruction was followed by Khatami’s period of reform (1997-2005) which consciously placed
“I owe you the truth in painting and I will tell it to you.”
Paul Cezanne in a letter to Emile Bernard, 23 October 1905
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cultural production at the centre of his political mission. The arts reappeared with a vengeance.
In the course of two decades of creative production the Tehran-based artist Pooya Aryanpour
Aryanpour spent most of the 1990s in education, accumulating three fine arts degrees and a
has developed a sophisticated abstract visual vocabulary reiterated in painting, film making, and
teaching job at his alma mater, Azad University. Titled Outlooking (2000), the first series of paintings
more recently in sculpture. He does not profess to follow a specific school of critical thought or
to attract media attention was widely exhibited both in Tehran and internationally. The collection
philosophy, and the statements accompanying each series of works are often enigmatic, poetic
consists of triptychs and single square canvases juxtaposing sharp-edged geometric fragments
even, and certainly not definitive. During interviews he proclaims distrust of absolutes and more
with each other with biomorphic shapes and textures, all suspended above smooth backgrounds.
than once he has declared his desire to destabilise certainty. He does not stress psychobiography
Though still in the domain of modernist formal abstraction, it already points to Aryanpour’s mature
nor does he dwell on identity production. There is little emphasis on cultural specificity, although,
visual grammar. A similar aesthetic marks a short documentary about the Iranian painter Farideh
enigmatically, this is not absolutely true.
Lashai (1944-2013), the first of a number of documentaries on Iranian artists, this one co-directed
with Bahar Behbahani in the winter of 2001.
Aryanpour was born in 1971 to a prominent, controversial academic family. His father, AmirHossein Aryanpour (1925- 2001), is internationally renowned for popularising sociology in Iran
and is considered a brilliant teacher and unyielding speaker of truth to the powers that be at home.
Unusual for the times, the artist was kept out of formal education until he entered the School of
Plastic Arts in Tehran in the early 1990s.
Iranian visual culture has long been intimately tied to the fate and whims of its political institutions.
If the decline of the Qajar Dynasty (1789-1925) and the rise of the first Pahlavi (r. 1925-1941)
was accompanied by the academic realism espoused by Kamal-ol-Molk (1852-1940), the reign
of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (r.1941-1979) promoted the growth of a diverse, western influenced
yet essentially Iranian art world. Today the art works of its stars are collected globally, and names
such as Grigorian, Tanavoli, Zenderoudi, et al, have since been admitted to the canon of modern
art history.
With the revolution in 1979 the avant garde was side-lined and its modernist project replaced by
Untitled, Triptych, Acrylic on canvas, 150 x 300 cm, 2000
a radical new program of visual representation. Studio arts all but disappeared from view. Private
galleries and art publications were closed down, and university curricula realigned. Consequently
Academic abstraction was discarded with the completion of the series Red (2003) where diaphanous
a large number of cultural workers left the country or withdrew from public life. Those who
shapes rendered in thin white wash float above saturated pink/red colour-fields. Anthropomorphic
adapted found the Islamic Republic favoured a bold, graphic aesthetic applied in poster art and
hybrids of plant and bone swiftly executed with a delicate brush only hint at figuration. Needle
imposing street murals. Populist themes reflected Shia ethics and propaganda supportive of
sharp, flower petal soft, delicately skeletal; always on the edge of suggestion, but never quite
the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). Artists who came to maturation during this period are generally
realised. Arrows - directional signifiers implying motion and thus time - point beyond the frame
referred to as the ‘third generation’ or ‘children of the 1360s’ (1980s in the Gregorian calendar),
in opposite directions, leaving a jumble of graphic marks static in the centre. These ghost forms
including Aryanpour.
threaten to drift off the vertiginous expanse of the picture plane at any moment. Negative shadows
like photograms, “neither present nor absent, neither dead nor alive,” to quote Derrida.
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Facture and execution remain unchanged in the subsequent series Pain and Witness in 2007.
This time, subject matter is communicated by the artist to his audience: the desire to “…mix pain
and suffering with the witness.” In Arabic and Farsi this is already so, where the witness shahed
in the form of shahadat corresponds both to witnessing and to martyrdom. While the painting
carrying the series title depicts a register alluding to writing above three poppy plants, I am
interested in Stemmed (2007). Here a spectral row of tulips extends below a band of undulating
inverted calligraphy on the margins of legibility. Is there narrative at last? It is well known that the
red tulip has a long history in signifying martyrdom in Iran and it was a popular sign mourning
the fallen during the war with Iraq (1980-1988). Twenty years on they are haunting the present,
rendering the Now unstable. Uncertain. The debt of a promise and its truth told in painting.
Untitled, Acrylic on canvas, 200 x 300 cm, 2009
What are they, these objects? Sharp, yonic, bulbous, delicate – these shape-shifters the meaning of
which resists articulation? In the 2011 Golden Series they materialise incongruously in an untitled
triptych depicting two self portraits of the artist - with tennis racket, with hat - alongside a panel
illustrating what could be construed as a 1950s glamour model. Superimposed on the standing
figures yet discreet from them; form as form, nothing more. Perhaps this is their secret.
Stemmed, Acrylic on canvas, 180 x 300 cm, 2007
In the course of the following years the spectral photograms acquire density, definition and the
capacity to signify qualities such as motion, flight or sharpness. An examination over several
series of dynamic, cutting and floating objects (2007 to 2010) inserts the symbol indicating equality
of value. Colours reappear; so do depth of field and chiaroscuro, the play of light and shadow.
By 2009, the colour-fields have gone and the backgrounds hint at geography. Angry red, lashed
by a black brush and half- obscured by darkness above which hybrid objects float in space like
solitary satellites circumnavigating fictional planets. In the same year - the year when peaceful
demonstrations protesting Ahmadinejad’s (2005-2013) disputed election victory were firmly
repressed – Aryanpour twists his fantastical entities to suggest surreal torture devices.
Untitled, Acrylic on canvas, 2011, Triptych, 240 x 420 cm
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The subsequent series, Transient Dreams in Passing Fantasies (2013), marks a significant shift
During the same period the artist embarked on the construction of two phantasmagorical mirror-
in Aryanpour’s practice. Here, he trades in rectangular and square canvases in favour of tondi,
paintings titled Continuous Feast (2014). Both were offered to the public as part of a multi-media
paintings executed on a round surface. This constitutes, quite literally, a destabilising gesture. It
event in July 2014, where sound, light, and artworks colluded to bring into being a fully immersive
re-negotiates the shape of the edge between work and wall, and intuitively modifies the path of the
Gesammtkunstwerk. The projections refracting the mirrored surface – and I can only use my
viewers’ gaze across the picture plane.
imagination prompted by the photographic archive – not only shift the formal appearance of the
work but fill the entire edifice with a galactic explosion of elements. The separation between
space, artwork, and spectator was thus dissolved.
Continuous Feast, 2014, Mirror-Painting Glass, Plaster on Wood, 270 x 565 cm
Mirror and painted tile-work has been central to Iranian architectural decoration since the Safavid
Shah Abbas I (1571-1629) invited Venetian glass makers to present their wares to the Persian
throne. The practice of covering walls and ceilings with mirror mosaics was embraced with eager
enthusiasm during the later Qajar period culminating in the unrestrained celebration of the
medium in the halls of the Golestan Palace in Tehran. It was appropriated by the neo-traditionalist
artist Monir Farmanfarmaian in the 1970s and elaborated upon with great commercial success
over the past two decades. Mirror and tile work is integral to the Iranian visual archive, culturally
specific, and easily recognisable as such.
Drawing of an Illuminator, Acrylic on canvas, Diameter 160 cm, 2015
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Under the Shell includes three large-scale biomorphic sculptures wrapped in mirror and painted
glass-work. The titles are evocative and perhaps intentionally misleading; Beautiful Virgin, Sacred
Secret, Temptation (all from 2016). Progressing naturally from Continuous Feast they are suspended
from the ceiling, levitating above the ground, three-dimensional incarnations of the shapeshifting objects so prevalent in Aryanpour’s paintings. Designed on the principle of overlapping
circle segments, yonic openings permit access to, or through, the mass of the body. Opulent and
sensuous, teasing and suggestive they invite a myriad of interpretations from the spiritual to the
sexual, though admitting to none. Like Continuous Feast, they already embody the potential for
transformation.
I cannot help but speculate about an intellectual, if not formal, kinship with the sculptural
practice of Anish Kapoor who, in his early work utilised thick layers of homochromatic pigment
to subvert form and depth perception. A Flower, A Drama Like Death from 1986 is a good example.
The monumental Cloudscape (2004-2005) succeeds beautifully in suspending the border between
artwork, environment and spectator, integrating all three with the aid of an expansive reflective
surface. The implications of this kind of art for our sense of being in this world at this time are
nothing short of revolutionary.
Christa Paula is a freelance author and art historian based in the UK. She holds a PhD in art history
from SOAS and a Masters degree from the Frick at the University of Pittsburgh. Since 2003 she has
published numerous articles on contemporary art in the Middle East.
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PAINTINGS
Drifted, Acrylic on Canvas, 170 cm diameter, 2016
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Drifted #2, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 cm diameter, 2016
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Measuring the Moment, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 cm diameter, 2016
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The Nameless Mountain, Acrylic on Canvas, 170 cm diameter, 2016
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Unexploded Connection, Acrylic on Canvas, 170 cm diameter, 2016
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Heroic Measure, Acrylic on Canvas, 160 cm diameter, 2016
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Cold Dark Matter, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 cm diameter, 2016
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Black Colour Saving, Acrylic on Canvas, 160 cm diameter, 2016
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Making Noise, Acrylic on canvas, 130 cm diameter, 2016
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Open Ocean, Acrylic on Canvas, 130 x 180 cm, 2016
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Black Evidence, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 x 200 cm, 2016
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The Perfect Season, Acrylic on Canvas, 130 x 180 cm, 2016
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Black Rainbow, Acrylic on Canvas, 130 x 180 cm, 2016
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Preserve Beauty, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 x 200 cm, 2016
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Into the Dawn, Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 180 cm, 2016
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Forbidden, Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 180 cm, 2016
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Crumpled, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 x 170 cm, 2016
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Unfolded, Acrylic on canvas, 150 x 200 cm
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No to Paradise, Acrylic on Canvas, 130 x 180 cm, 2016
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Untitled, Acrylic on Canvas, 200 x 150 cm, 2015
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Untitled, Acrylic on Canvas, 200 x 150 cm, 2009
Drawing of an Illuminator, Acrylic on Canvas, 160 cm diameter, 2014
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Untitled, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 cm diameter, 2014
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MIRROR SCULPTURES
Untitled, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 cm diameter, 2014
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Temptation, Mirror-Painting Glass, Plaster on Wood, 203 x 140 x 73cm, 2015
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Temptation, Mirror-Painting Glass, Plaster on Wood, 203 x 140 x 73cm, 2015
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Temptation, Mirror-Painting Glass, Plaster on Wood, 203 x 140 x 73cm, 2015
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Temptation, Mirror-Painting Glass, Plaster on Wood, 203 x 140 x 73cm, 2015
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Beautiful Virgin, Mirror-Painting Glass, Plaster on Wood, 251 x 102 x 181 cm, 2015
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Beautiful Virgin, Mirror-Painting Glass, Plaster on Wood, 251 x 102 x 181 cm, 2015
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Sacred Secret, Mirror-Painting Glass, Plaster on Wood, 252 x 95 x 84 cm, 2015
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Sacred Secret, Mirror-Painting Glass, Plaster on Wood, 252 x 95 x 84 cm, 2015
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LIST OF ARTWORKS
PAINTINGS
- Drifted, Acrylic on Canvas, 170 cm diameter, 2016
- Drifted #2, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 cm diameter, 2016
- Measuring the Moment, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 cm diameter, 2016
- The Nameless Mountain, Acrylic on Canvas, 170 cm diameter, 2016
- Unexploded Connection, Acrylic on Canvas, 170 cm diameter, 2016
- Heroic Measure, Acrylic on Canvas, 160 cm diameter, 2016
- Cold Dark Matter, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 cm diameter, 2016
- Black Colour Saving, Acrylic on Canvas, 160 cm diameter, 2016
- Making Noise, Acrylic on Canvas, 130 cm diameter, 2016
- Open Ocean, Acrylic on Canvas, 130 x 180 cm, 2016
- Black Evidence, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 x 200 cm, 2016
- The Perfect Season, Acrylic on Canvas, 130 x 180 cm, 2016
- Black Rainbow, Acrylic on Canvas, 130 x 180 cm, 2016
- Preserve Beauty, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 x 200 cm, 2016
- Into the Dawn, Acrylic on Canvas, 130 x 180 cm, 2016
- Forbidden, Acrylic on Canvas, 130 x 180 cm, 2016
- Crumpled, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 x 170 cm, 2016
- Unfolded, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 x 200 cm
- No to Paradise, Acrylic on Canvas, 130 x 180 cm, 2016
- Untitled, Acrylic on Canvas, 200 x 150 cm, 2015
- Untitled, Acrylic on Canvas, 200 x 150 cm, 2009
- Drawing of an Illuminator, Acrylic on Canvas, 160 cm diameter, 2014
- Untitled, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 cm diameter, 2014
- Untitled, Acrylic on Canvas, 150 cm diameter, 2014
MIRROR SCULPTURES
- Temptation, Mirror-Painting Glass, Plaster on Wood, 203 x 140 x 73cm, 2015
- Beautiful Virgin, Mirror-Painting Glass, Plaster on Wood, 251 x 102 x 181 cm, 2015
- Sacred Secret, Mirror-Painting Glass, Plaster on Wood, 252 x 95 x 84 cm, 2015
Sacred Secret, Mirror-Painting Glass, Plaster on Wood, 252 x 95 x 84 cm, 2015
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TIMELINE
Born 1971 in Tehran, Iran
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EDUCATION
Abstraction & Expression, Mellat Gallery,
Tehran, Iran
1999
Transparency, AB Gallery, Lucerne, Switzerland M.A. in Painting, Azad University, Tehran, Iran 1997
Iranian Heritage Foundation, Charity Event,
London, UK
Nar Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Sad Abad Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Exhibition to help refugee children organised by
UNESCO, Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran,Iran
Hoor Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2nd Conceptual Art Exhibition, Museum of
Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran
Exhibition to support Earthquake Survivors,
Tehran, Iran
2000
International Drawing, Museum of Contemporary
Art, Tehran, Iran
B.A. in Painting, Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Endless, Mohsen Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2006
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Artists for Conservation, Golestan Gallery,
Tehran, Iran
Hoor Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2014
2012
Islamic World Biennale, Saba Cultural Center,
Tehran, Iran
2010
East of the Dream, Museum of Contemporary Art,
Tehran, Iran
1999
2010
2004
The Cultural Centre of the Embassy of Mexico,
Tehran, Iran
Transient Dreams in Passing Fantasies, Boom
Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2010
Meem Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2009
The Cut, Aun Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2009
The Cut, Etemad Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2007
Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran
2004
Serendipity Gallery, Göteborg, Sweden
2003
Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2000
Barg Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1998
Barg Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1994
Barg Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Color of Love, Assar Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Khak Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Faravahar Gallery, Tehran, Iran
AB Gallery, Lucerne, Switzerland 2009
Radical Gallery at Radical house, Zurich,
Switzerland
In the mood for paper, F2 Gallery, Beijing, China
Maah Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Contemporary Iranian Art, F2 Gallery, Beijing,
China
Gardens of Iran, Conceptual Art Exhibition,
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran
Turning Points: Seven Iranian Artists, Columbia
University, New York, USA
Hussenot Gallery, Paris, France
6th Painting Biennale, Museum of Contemporary
Art, Tehran, Iran
Dar Al-Funoon Gallery, Kuwait 2003
2008
Abim Group Exhibition, Mimara Museum,
Zagreb, Croatia
Magic of Persia, Dubai, UAE
A Spirtual Vision, Museum of Contemporary Art,
Tehran, Iran
Mall Gallery, London, UK
Aria Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2007
Exhibition to raise awareness for Cancer Patients,
Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran
Abim Group Exhibition, Niavaran Cultural Center,
Tehran, Iran
2002
Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2nd Biennale of Contemporary Painting of the
Islamic World, Tehran, Iran
Silk Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Don O’Melveny Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2014
Contemporary Iranian Arts (Broken promises,
Forbidden Dreams), Art London, UK
Drawing Exhibition, Elahe Gallery, Tehran, Iran
A Breeze from the Garden of Persia, Meridian
International Center, New York, Washington D.C.,
Atlanta,
Mah Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Los Angeles, Florida, Texas, Vermont, USA
Seyhoun Art Gallery II, Tehran, Iran
2014
Magic of Persia, Los Angeles, USA
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The Silent Brush, The Ronald Reagan Building,
Washington DC, USA
5th Biennale of Painting, Tehran, Iran
International Artexpo, New York, USA
Asian Art Biennale, Dhaka, Bangladesh
1993
International Exhibition of Children’s Illustration,
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran
1990
Noor Gallery, Tehran, Iran
AWARDS
2002
Winner, 2nd Biennale of Contemporary Painting
of the Islamic World, Tehran, Iran
2000
Winner, 5th Biennale for Painting, Tehran, Iran
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
- Collection of the Tehran Museum of
Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran
- Collection of Dr. Farjam, Dubai, UAE
- Collection of Mr Hashemnia, Tehran, Iran
- Collection of Vladimir Tsarenkov, London, UK
- Collection of Ibrahim Malamad, Tehran, Iran
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First published in 2016 by Sophia Contemporary Gallery
on the occasion of the exhibition:
POOYA ARYANPOUR
Under the Shell
10 June – 21 July 2016
All works © Pooya Aryanpour
Publication © Sophia Contemporary Gallery 2016
Text © Christa Paula 2016
Published by
SOPHIA CONTEMPORARY GALLERY
11 Grosvenor Street, London, W1K 4QB, UK
www.sophiacontemporary.com
Designed by
Denis Toom
Photography by
Roy Fox
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