FARHAD MOSHIRI | 'SWEET DREAMS'

Download Release

October 18th - November 27th, 2007

Farhad Moshiri (Shiraz, Iran) is well known for his ironic interpretations of hybrids between traditional Iranian forms and those of the consumerist and globalized popular culture widespread in his country. Some of the artists best examples of this: his gold leafed sculpture-furniture installations (Super Love Golden Deluxe); his tapestries embroidered with subjects drawn from contemporary mythology; Moshiri’s large cracked urn paintings decorated with Farsi script reciting lyrics of overly sentimental popular love songs; or in the case of his last New York exhibition Welcome where the artist turned curator, addresses the packaging tendencies associated with culture brokering and associated consumption. Moshiri asks us to consider what it is that makes a work ethnic, traditional or even contemporary for that matter. Based in Tehran, the artist’s reflections on the visual and cultural productions of the region engage us in a thorough questioning of the dynamics of viewing in a globalized economy of images.

In Sweet Dreams (the third in a series of exhibitions, including Threshold of Happiness and Candy Store) the painter entrusts his narration of an increasingly morbid and affected cultural and political climate to a more direct approach — using a cake-icing dispenser to sculpt elaborate patterns on canvas. Despite over-the-top ornamentation, including Swarovski Crystals and Baroque drapery, Moshiri’s paintings maintain a minimalist elegance, while simultaneously questioning the connotations of good taste and the implications of aesthetics as he combines opposites in form and composition, conceptually and visually.

February 2008 - Art Review, "Art Without Borders", Issue 19

August 22nd, 2006 - EURO NEWS TV Channel, review of "Words into Art" at British Museum

August 12th, 2006 - BERLINGSKE Newspaper, "Nar kunsten er iklaedt chador", Kultur Section, pg 2-3

May 29th, 2006 - CHRISTIES auction catalog, Contemporary Art of the Middle East

August 2006 - WORDS INTO ART, exhibition at British Museum catalog

June 2007 Degrees of Freedom - Charlotte Edwards, World of Interiors

May 2007 The Saatchi Show - Bronwyn Cosgrave, Evening Standard Magazine

October 2005 Pick of the Fairs - Sarah Kent, TimeOut

September 2005 Future masters earn their stripes - Virginia Blackburn, The Times

June 2005 Brit Art - here's Grit Art - Hester Westley, the Times

About Farhad Moshiri:

Farhad Moshiri, an Iranian multi-disciplinary artist and curator, lives and works in Teheran. From 1981 to 1984 he studied Art & Film at the California Institute of the Arts. Since then, his work concentrated on painting and mix-media, using them as means to give voice to his critical and astute observations on present day culture in Iran. Farhad's work ranges from the ironically conceptual to the candidly beautiful, often within one piece. He tackles themes ranging from Iranian urban everyday reality to the culture of consumerism and architecture in the post revolutionary period.

Selected Exhibitions

2008 East West Dialogues, Mysticism, Satire and the Legendary Past, LTMH – Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery, New York, NY, USA

2008 CHRISTIES Auction House, International Modern and Contemporary Art, 30 April, Dubai, UAE

2008 Art Dubai, March 18 – 22, Dubai, UAE

2008 BONHAMS Auction House, Inaugural Middle East Auction, Dubai, UAE

2008 ‘Word into Art’, British Museum at DIFC, Dubai, UAE

2007 “Candy Store”, The Third Line, Dubai, U.A.E. (solo)

2007 “Sweet Dreams”, Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, New York, USA (solo)

2006 “Threshold of Hap”, Extraspazio, Rome (solo)

2006 Albareh Gallery, Bahrain (solo)

2006 “Paintings”, The Third Line, Dubai, U.A.E. (solo)

2006 “Operation Supermarket”, a part of “Images of the Middle East”, Kolding Design School, collaboration with Shirin Aliabadi, Denmark (solo)

2006 “Operation Supermarket”, collaboration with Shirin Aliabadi, The Counter Gallery, London, UK (solo)

2006 ETHNIC MARKETING, curated by Tirdad Zolghadr, 13 Vanak, Tehran, Iran

2006 IMAGES OF THE MIDDLE EAST, Coppenhagen, Denmark

2006 ART WITHOUT BORDERS, ACCEA, Yerevan, Armenia

2006 IRAN.COM,Museum of New Art, Freiburg, Germany

2006 V-Day, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Chelsea NY, USA

2006 WORDS INTO ART, curated by Venetia Porter, British Museum, May, London, UK

2006 CHRISTIES Auction House, contemporary Middle East Art Auction, 2 viewings in London, Auction in Dubai, UAE

2005 “ETHNO KITSCH” Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, January, New York

2005 WELCOME, curated by Farhad Moshiri, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York

2005 It’s hard to touch the real (Tour),Bildmuseet Ume, University College of Fine Arts, Ume

2005 It’s hard to touch the real (Tour),Yeans (artist-run-space), Gothenburg

2005 It’s hard to touch the real (Tour),Unge Kunstnerers Samfund UKS (The Association of Young Artists), Oslo

2005 It’s hard to touch the real (Tour),Tallinn Kunsthalle, Tallinn

2004 Guido Schlinkert Gallery, Solo show, Rome, December

2004 Art Space Gallery, Dubai, October

2004 “ETHNIC MARKETING”, Centre D’art Contemporain, Geneva. Group exhibition curated by Tirdad Zolghadr, October

2004 Kashya Hildebrand Gallery Solo exhibition, New York, April

2004 “Iran under the skin” CCCB, Barcelona, (Curator: Firouz Firouz) April

2004 “House of World Cultures”, Berlin, (Curator: Rose Issa) March

2004 “TURNING POINTS”, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, (Curator: Media Farzin) March, NY

2004 Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York, USA (solo)

2004 Art Space Gallery, curated by Isabelle van den Eynde de Rivieren, Dubai, UAE (solo)

2004 e x t r a s p a z i o gallery, Rome, Italy (solo)

2003 Leighton House Museum, curated by Rose Issa, London, UK (solo)

2003 Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Geneva, Switzerland (solo)

2003 “Haft”, Ville De Boulogne-Billancourt, l’Espace Landowski, (Curator: Michket Krifa) November

2003 “Continuous stroke of a breath” (Curator: Afsaneh Firouz) Harvard, Boston

2003 Galerie Kashya Hildebrand Solo painting exhibition, Geneva, September

2003 Leighton House Museum, May (Curator, Rose Issa) London

2003 Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmo, Sweden, April

2003 Sharjah Biennial, Modern Art Museum, U.A.E April

2003 Casa Asia Curator, Maria Chus Martinez)Barcelona, July

2002 13 Vanak Street Gallery, Curator: Fereydoun Ave, Tehran, Iran

2002 Zen Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2002 New Paintings, 13 Vanak ST., Tehran, Iran (solo)

2001 Heaven, installation, 13 Vanak ST., Tehran, Iran (solo)

2000 New Works, 13 Vanak ST., Tehran, Iran (solo)

2000 Painting exhibition,13 Vanak Street Gallery, Tehran, Iran

1999 Painting exhibition, Bokhara Gallery, Tehran, Iran

1994 - 1998 Produced children’s books, computer animation and Films for UNICEF

1993 Biennale of Tehran, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran

1992 Painting exhibition, Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran, Iran

1989 Painting exhibition, Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

1988 Installation, Black Salad Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

1987 The End, a video installation, invite group exhibition, Los Angeles, USA

Literature

2005 Gulf Air Magazine, May 2005

2005 Art AsiaPacific, Spring 2005

2005 Bidoun Magazine, Spring 2005

2005 New York Times, April 8, 2005, review by Holland Cotter

2005 Canvas, March/ April 2005

2005 New York Sun, March 25, 2005

2005 Trace, March 2005

2005 Bidoun Magazine, Winter 2005

2004 Berliner Morgenpost, March 20, 2004, Berlin

2004 Der Tagesspiegel, March 19, 2004, Berlin