Gallery hopping on a Friday afternoon

What better way to spend your Friday afternoon than gallery hopping in Tehran?

Last Friday, we visited the opening of an exhibition by Roxana Manouchehri in Assar Gallery. Roxana Manouchehri is an Iranian artist born on 1974. She has had a number of solo exhibitions at Assar Galllery and has participated in group exhibitions in Tehran, UAE and South Korea.

Works consisted of reverse paintings on perspex with wood frame as well as several paintings from her Encounter series. Paintings on wood frames, an example of which is seen bellow, can be described as Persian miniatures narrating stories of ancient battles as well as tributes to tales being told in Persian poetry.

Paintings are from her Encounter series and have elements of spirituality and a religious attitude. According to her, even though Iranian lifestyle has embraced modernism, it is still governed by traditional and conventional perspective. Overall, I enjoyed the experience of visiting the gallery as well as the exhibition, even though my personal taste leans more toward expressionism, abstract expressionism and sometimes pop art.

Afterward, we took advantage of the traffic-free streets of Tehran and drove to another opening in Aun Gallery. This exhibition is entitled "GGBG" and the artist is Nafiseh Emran. The series was of complete different genre which consequently made the gallery's environment somehow different. Basically, you'd mostly see art students supporting their peer in what seemed like her very first solo exhibition (that would only be my observation). Nafiseh's works are scenes from a theater in which as Dr. Kamrani puts "the players are extracted from [...] traditional theater (Roo-hozi in Farsi), circus, dolls and cartoons."  According to Dr. Kamrani, Nafiseh "makes us question ourselves, [...], where we are and how we should confront with contrasts and tensions."

 
Interestingly enough, this week Aun gallery dedicated their extended new space to a video installation. I think this concept is something fairly new in Tehran's Art scene. What I really loved was the fact that the inside, as well as the outside was filled with art and music students. Live music was being played in 10 minute segments between reruns of the installation. For a second, I thought I was standing in a gallery in SoHo or Chelsea. Another reminder not to forget how talented these Iranian musicians and artists are. LOVED IT...


Photos are courtesy of Assar Gallery website and TavoosOnline.com.
To see more works from Roxana Manouchehri, please refer to the link below:
http://www.assarartgallery.com/english/exhibitions/index.php?id=137&act=det&cur_qs=
For more information regarding Nafiseh Emran's works, please refer to the link below:
http://www.aungallery.com/en/artists/nafiseh_emran/