Beyond Ruptures includes works of Aref el Rayess, Jean Khalife, Samir Khaddaje, Samia Osseiran, Shafic Abboud, Said Akl, Akram Zaatari and Nesrine Khodr as a testimony and tribute to the cultural resistance led by artists, cultural workers, and art patrons, in the challenging environments Lebanon has presented over the years. Selected works in the timeline, mark important events in the lives of each artist, and act as time capsules showing different artistic practices shaped by violence.
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Selected from the Erol Tabanca Collection, the works on display share a sensibility towards optical, thermal, metamorphic, and affective phenomena surrounding sunlight and its atmospheric refractions, exploring aesthetic possibilities surrounding mimicry as a biological and cultural impulse.
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For The Met Fifth Avenue’s facade niches, Nairy Baghramian has created four abstract polychrome sculptures with components that seem to have washed up like flotsam and jetsam in the voids of their respective niches. The project is the artist’s first public installation in New York City and is the fourth in the series of contemporary commissions for The Met’s facade.
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Meşher’s new exhibition Istanbul as Far as the Eye Can See: Views across Five Centuries is curated by Şeyda Çetin and Ebru Esra Satıcı. Based on a selection of more than 100 rare works from the Ömer Koç Collection, the exhibition spans 500 years, from the 15th century – when Istanbul became Ottoman Empire’s capital – to the first quarter of the 20th century. Paintings and engravings showing wide-angle views, together with rare books, albums, panoramic photographs, and even souvenirs of Istanbul, offer visitors a richly varied visual record of the city. Curated by Şeyda Çetin and Ebru Esra Satıcı.
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For the first annual spatial intervention in Beirut Art Center’s central hall, artist Marwan Rechmaoui will create Municipalities, a proposal for a space within a space. An inhabited sculpture that mimics and behaves erratically and formally all at once. A self declared autonomous structure within an existing reality, Municipalities contemplates processes of lived reality and the loss of sense of time, or frozen time, that we experience when we attempt to withdraw and build worlds that offer other insights and realizations.
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This is the most comprehensive exhibition of Handan Börüteçene, whose practice has firmly focused on archaeology, history, and nature for over forty years. The title points to a geography that has inspired the artist with its land and seas as well as cultural heritage and myths: Anatolia and Thrace.
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Organized by Ashkal Alwan as part of the first chapter of “Home Works 9: A Forum on Cultural Practices,” this exhibition revisits forms of critical artmaking in Lebanon from the 1990s onward. The title is a reference to Ashkal Alwan’s inaugural project, at Sanayeh Garden, Beirut (1995). The exhibition draws on lived experiences and acts of writing a subjective history and prompts us to consider what it means to tend to Lebanon’s recent woes from the vantage point of everyday life. An accompanying film program will run bi-weekly starting in January 2024.
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Running until December 1: Curated by Fereshte Moosavi, the screening program (on demand) selects video-arts, in which artists, by being present in the public place, are reclaiming the space of common to activate social change and political developments. Featured videos are: “There Were Multiple Choices, But We Could Not Decide,” 2013, by Arash Fayez; “Freedom,” 2015, by Jinoos Taghizadeh; “So-city of Spectacle: a practice of freedom,” 2015, by Mitra Kia & Maryam Nesami; “Charcoal Alley,” 2020, by Niyaz Saghari; and “The Adventures of Super Sohrab,” 2022, by Sohrab Kashani. The program is hosted by Cryptofiction.
On view until December 1: The exhibition embodies a decade-long journey through surroundings, guided by a quest for discovery. What commenced as a visual exercise, aimed at shedding light on the often-overlooked aspects of our world through the selection of diverse subjects, has gradually transformed into a collection of form-centered compositions by eliminating superfluous elements. Hassan and Hossain Rowshanbakht are twin brothers hold a master degrees in photography at Faculty of Fine Arts of University of Tehran, are accredited professors at Kashan University, and creative directors of Kashan´s Steve House, House of Lucie, Sooleh Art Space, and Hashtcheshmeh Art Space.
On view until December 8: Eminent Iranian artist Shahla Hossein’s fourth solo exhibition at Emkan Gallery in Tehran.
On view until December 11: Fragments II is the second solo exhibition by Farzad Majidi (born 1986), who continues his exploration of space and place through collage-like paintings. The artist combines visual and textual fragments from various sources, such as the internet, art history, memory and personal objects, to create spaces or scenes that emerge from experimentation and improvisation. The paintings are not meant to be realistic or coherent, but rather to reflect the artist’s subjective and multifaceted perception of reality.
On view until December 11: Broken Mirrors is a series of artworks by Adena Mirzakhanian, who explores the themes of identity, memory, and trauma. The artworks consist of fragmented mirrors that reflect the distorted images of the artist and the viewers, creating a sense of disorientation and alienation. Mirzakhanian uses the mirrors as a metaphor for the shattered self, the loss of coherence, and the difficulty of reconstruction. The artworks also challenge the notions of beauty, authenticity, and representation, as the mirrors reveal the imperfections and contradictions of the human condition.
On view until December 15: Farokh Abolghasem is a contemporary Iranian painter who explores the themes of identity, memory, and nostalgia in his works. His paintings are characterized by vibrant colors, expressive brushstrokes, and collage elements that create a sense of depth and dynamism. Abolghasem presents a series of new paintings that reflect his personal and artistic journey, as well as his connection to his homeland and its culture.
Taghavi’s practice insists on positionality: where one stands determines what—and how—one sees. For the past several years, her work with talismans, calligraphy, and the Islamic occult has coalesced into a series of sculptures and paintings that strive to signify the unseen.
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On view and running until December 21: The 12th edition of Persbook Annual of Contemporary Art departs from “Body-Weaving” as its leading topic to explore and discuss connections and connectivity between art, artists, and society, as well as art's and the artists' ecologies. Based on the studies of Canadian ecologist Suzanne Simard, who researches the social life of trees and the forest, artists, researchers, and activists deal with the topics “Rootage” and “Broad Body” in workshops, discussions, and site-specific exhibitions. Persbooks's 12th Annual of Contemporary art takes place in the middle of nature at an art residency space in Gilan province, north of Iran. Concept and curation by Neda Darzi and Reza Monjezi.
On view until December 22: As part of the 20th Photaumnales festival, held by Diaphane institute, and curated by Behzad Nejadghanbar and Emmanuelle Halkin, the exhibition presents five photographic approaches from the contemporary art scene in Iran. The works of the artists Ghazaleh Hedayat, Nooshin Shafiee, Mazdak Ayari, Mohsen Shahmardi, and Pouya Parsamagham were brought together to highlight certain current trends in Iranian photography. This collection of varied but complementary works introduces the richness of visual art in Iran and its specific characteristics resulting from the country’s social and political context.
On view until December 22: Masoumi’s tool isn’t a calligraphy pen, but calligraphy itself. Her pen’s texture is her own Shekasteh-Nastaliq script, and she crosshatches with her words. Unlike your experience, Masoumi doesn’t use software. Her process requires significant time and effort. She needs a rough idea and sketch of the image she wants to create.
On view until December 24: Sokut is an exhibition by Iranian artist Bizhan Bassiri. The exhibition showcases Bassiri’s sculptures, installations, and drawings that explore the concept of the Magmatic Thought, a poetic and philosophical manifesto that he created in 1990. Bassiri’s works are inspired by the cosmic energy of the volcanic eruption, the metamorphosis of matter, and the interplay of different artistic languages.
On view until December 29: “The Shattering” is a solo exhibition by the artist Maryam Tabatabaee, showcased in the Nian Gallery. The exhibition features a collection of her artworks and provides an immersive experience for the audience. Maryam Tabatabaee’s work often explores profound themes and evokes strong emotions.