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  • Frieze New York 2023

    Farah Ossouli
    "David & I", 2014
    Gouache on Cardboard
    110 x 75 cm
  • Press Release

    Dastan is pleased to announce its participation in Frieze New York 2023. The art fair will be open to public viewing from May 17 to 21, 2023. The presentation marks Dastan's fifth participation in Frieze New York. The artists featured in the booth include the late renowned painters Behjat Sadr (1924-2009) and Farideh Lashai (1944-2013), as well as contemporary painter Farah Ossouli (b. 1953), multi-disciplinary artist Bita Fayyazi (b. 1962), photographer and video artist Newsha Tavakolian (b. 1981).

     

    Featuring a selection of artworks by five Iranian female artists who have been a source of inspiration for several generations, the presentation aims to highlight the broad inter-generational inspirations each artist has enabled and the social changes they have made possible through developing their practices and careers. 

     

    In the recent several months, the events within Iran have been continuously part of the news cycles of global media. As so, being more exposed to the situation, many international viewers have had the opportunity to take a more thorough, multi-dimensional, and contemplative view of the present-day circumstances in the country. Reflecting on what has been happening in the country for the past year and the long-standing range of sociopolitical tensions, the presentation brings together five artists from multiple generations, with lives spanning over a century. This allows the viewer to meditate on how artists have constantly envisioned an alternative present and future while encouraging and inspiring others. 

     

    Without intending to find common ground in their practice, these artists have had the will to express themselves against limitations within a patriarchal society and a complex apparatus of power whose exercise of social control hinges on women’s bodies. Each of these artists bears traces of survival, which has led her to form a community. What each shares with other women in this loose grouping are using art, artistic practice, and way of living as forms of resistance, inspiration, community-building, creating alternative narratives, and empowering women of younger generations. As so be it the verbalization of ideas, artistic expression, or the trajectory of life and career, directly or indirectly, these artists have nurtured generations of artists, curators, and practitioners in the art scene, as well as defining new paths and approaches, and directions. 

     

    Their practice is a seamless braiding of personal history and politics, lived through bone and blood, arriving at their unique language. Whether through dense black oil color (Behjat Sadr), painterly ventures (Farideh Lashai), meticulous illuminations (Farah Ossouli), stark imagery (Bita Fayyazi), or sympathetic portraits (Newsha Tavakolian), each of these artists has a story to tell.

  • Bita Fayyazi, Overview

    Bita Fayyazi
    Beautiful Creatures - One Foot Grounded, The Other Dancing Till … (The Red Shoes  Classic), 2014-2023
    Weaving Yarn, throw-away yarn (recycled), broken ceramics, metal wire
    Approx: 365 x 60 x 40 cm

    Bita Fayyazi

    Overview

    Bita Fayyazi (b. 1962, Tehran) lives and works in Tehran. More than a sculptor, an installation artist, or a ceramicist, engaged in some mystic relationship with her material, Fayyazi is an artist who works within a more performative and markedly social practice.

    Bita Fayyazi struggled to show her work in an atmosphere of stuffy traditionalism, academicism, and the influx of 1990s conceptual art.
    Beginning in mid-1990s, her artistic interventions challenged the official definitions of art. Works of Fayyazi are collaborative by nature.
    Bita and her artist or non-artist colleagues use whatever material is readily available to wrap, entwine, paint, and cast sculptures made of the fabric of social participation. She reconstitutes the energies of the many toward an uncertain resolution. The final object becomes less important than the process – the collective doing, the love of doing – that preceded its creation.

     

    In addition to bringing her work to the streets and abandoned buildings of Tehran, Bita Fayyazi has presented prominent installations and performances internationally. She successfully entered 2000 pieces of ceramic "Cockroaches" into the 6th Biennial of Contemporary Ceramic Art (1998, Tehran, Iran). She cast and fired terracotta dogs ("Road Kill", 1998), modelled on dead dogs found on the highways of Tehran, and then placed her works on the streets around the city, much to the consternation of viewers. She participated in the Iranian Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005, Venice, Italy). She has exhibited at La Maison Rouge (2016, Paris, France), Espace Louis Vuitton (2008 and 2010, Paris, France), the Museum of Modern Art (2007, Freiburg, Germany) and the Pergamon Museum (2008, Berlin, Germany) among others.

  • Bita Fayyazi's work is inherently collaborative and made of the fabric of social participation. She often initiates her projects by inviting artists, enthusiasts, and people with diverse backgrounds, moving forwards with a polyphony of ideas, and reconstituting the energies of the many toward an uncertain resolution. Eventually, the outcome becomes less important than the process. The collective, plural ‘doing’ and the love of doing have shaped her artistic practice and the careers she has influenced over almost three decades. 

     

    Bita Fayazzi's “Beautiful Creatures - One Foot Grounded, The Other Dancing Till … (The Red Shoes  Classic)” (2014-2023), presented at the booth, depicts a pseudo-plant that hangs midair, seemingly descending from the sky, and is not yet rooted in the soil. Despite this, it grows in every direction, but its growth appears more organic. The artwork speaks of a thorough pursuit of weaving, similar to Fayazzi's artistic practice. She creates an ever-growing whole consisting of repetitive handiwork.

  • Installation Views

  • Farideh Lashai, Overview

    Farideh Lashai

    "Untitled" from the "The Foliage in Darkness", 2008

    Oil, Acrylic, and Graphite on Canvas

    176 x 183 cm

    Farideh Lashai

    Overview

    Farideh Lashai (1944, Rasht, Iran - 2013, Tehran, Iran) was an Iranian artist, writer, and filmmaker. She studied at the University of Tehran where she received her Bachelor's degree in Persian Literature in 1966. Lashai started her career as a painter, but later became interested in other mediums like video and installation art. Additionally, Lashai was a prolific writer and translator, having translated several works of literature into Persian and published several books of her own.

    Farideh Lashai was known for her multifaceted approach to art making. Her works, which range from painting to installation and video, often explore the complexities of Iranian history, mythology, and literature. Lashai's artistic approach involves a deep engagement with Persian calligraphy, a medium that she used to create intricate, abstract compositions that suggest the mysteries of the universe. Her works are marked by a sense of meditative calm and spiritual contemplation, inviting the viewer to reflect on the fleeting nature of life and the infinite possibilities of existence. At the same time, Lashai's works often carry a political edge, exploring themes of violence, war, and oppression, and questioning the power structures that govern our world. Over the course of her career, she had several solo exhibitions in Iran and abroad, including at the "Venice Biennale", the "Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art", and the "Musée d'Art Moderne" in Paris. Lashai also participated in numerous group exhibitions and has recieved several awards, including the First Tehran Painting Biennial Award (1962) and the Grand Prize of the First Festival of Iranian Graphic Design (2000).

  • Farideh Lashai was a renowned painter, teacher, writer, and translator and never ceased experimenting with artistic expression, pioneering in forms such as video art and installation. Amidst revolution, immigration, war, and sickness, Farideh was an artist leading a remarkable life. Apart from her artistic practice, she was prolific in expressing her ideas through her writing. In her memoir-like novel, for instance, apart from discussing the atmosphere of 1980s Iran and the ongoing war, she openly expresses her personal life, feelings, and concerns. Moreover, as a teacher, she encouraged students to experiment with their subject matters and themes. 

    Like many of her later work, the “Untitled” (2008) piece from her “The Trees” series depicts an ephemeral outlook, a fleeting moment, a fading sense of recall, and a memory dissolving into the background of the past. 

  • Farah Ossouli, Overview
     

    Farah Ossouli

    Overview

    Farah Ossouli (b. 1953, Zanjan, Iran) is a painter working and living in Tehran. She received her BA in Graphic Design from the University of Tehran, where she taught between 1972 and 1987. She founded DENA, a female art collective that has organized over 30 exhibitions since 2001. She is a member of the Society of Iranian Painters.

    Farah Ossouli achieved a unique fusion of techniques, materials, themes, and narrations during her forty-year career as an artist. She has been a pioneer in introducing contemporary themes and ideas into miniature painting. The latest collections of Farah Ossouli are based on classical European paintings (by Delacroix, Goya, David, Manet, Titan, Rembrandt, and Ingres, among others), chosen by the artist based on their historical and conceptual relevance vis-à-vis the manifestation of violence in our world today. By transforming the medium (Persian painting) and figures (female holding the torch), Farah Ossouli is presenting the viewer with a new way of looking at the events taking place around us.

    Farah Ossouli's solo exhibitions are "Wounded Virtue" (Dastan +2, 2016) | Shirin Gallery (New York, USA, 2014) | Paul Robeson Galleries (Rutgers University, Newark, USA, 2012) | Imam Ali Museum (Tehran, 2007) | Ludwig Museum (Koblenz, Germany, 2005). Group exhibitions are “Mossavar-Name” (Dastan’s Basement and +2, Tehran, 2018) | and “Mossavar-Name” (Art Dubai, Dubai, 2018). Her works are held at major public collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi; Tropen Museum, Amsterdam; Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany, and Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran.

    • Farah Ossouli "Good and Evil", 2014 Gouache on Cardboard 76 x 55 cm

      Farah Ossouli

      "Good and Evil", 2014
      Gouache on Cardboard
      76 x 55 cm
    • Farah Ossouli "Seven Thousand Years", 2014 Gouache on Cardboard 76 x 55 cm
      Farah Ossouli
      "Seven Thousand Years", 2014
      Gouache on Cardboard
      76 x 55 cm
    • Farah Ossouli "Sweet and Bitter", 2014 Gouache on Cardboard 56 x 76 cm
      Farah Ossouli
      "Sweet and Bitter", 2014
      Gouache on Cardboard
      56 x 76 cm
  • Farah Ossouli is one of the most respected and well-renowned Iranian painters of her generation. In addition to shaping a novel approach towards Persian “Miniature” Painting and creating a contemporary discourse that takes this form to new territories, she has been involved in numerous collaborative initiatives and projects. In 2001, she was a co-founder of Dena Collective, a non-exclusive collective of artists which sought to promote the careers of Iranian women during a time when they were severely underrepresented. Moreover, believing that “the spirit of the times reveals itself in art before showing up in social movements”, she has been supporting and promoting the work of younger generations for decades through advising and promoting initiatives that empower fresh voices.

     

    In “David and I”, she builds her image on Jacques-Louis David's “The Intervention of the Sabine Women” (1799). David's painting represents a story from Roman mythology and is replete with symbolism that illustrates Rome as a brutal ancient entity while also portraying Sabine women as new unconventional agents. It highlights the critical role of women as peacemakers and diplomats in Roman society. In her piece, Farah Ossouli seeks to present a further reading of the work, showing the struggle between the past and the present, older norms, and new, even unwanted, change. She looks at Sabine women as a symbol for the ‘unconventional’ and creates her work around a question of social transformation and change.

  • Installation Views

  • Behjat Sadr, Overview

    Behjat Sadr

    "Untitled", 2009

    Oil on Paper

    100 x 70 cm

    Behjat Sadr

    Overview

    Behjat Sadr  (1924, Arak, Iran – 2009, Corsica, France) known as Behjat Sadr Mahallāti is among the first female artists and university lecturers of Iran. She graduated in Painting from the University of Tehran (1954). She was an active presence in the international visual art scene beginning in the 1960s. Having studied in Italy, she became interested in abstraction and created her first series of works between 1961 and 1966.Sadr is known for using a palette knife on canvases that create impressionistic visual rhythm, movement and geometric shapes. Black dominates a major part of her work. She uses blotches to create dynamic patterns. By placing paint directly on the surface of the work and removing paint with a knife countless times, she arrives at the familiar visual structure of her paintings. Sadr was also a photographer and known for her collages.

    Sadr was a participant at 31st Venice Biennale in 1962. Her works are part of many museum collections, like Tate London; Minneapolis; Pompidou in Paris.  

  • In addition to being regarded as one of the pioneering modernist painters of Iran, working across several media and making collages and kinetic sculptures, Behjat Sadr was one of the very first art professors at the University of Tehran, where she taught for over twenty years. In her paintings, Sadr often leaves a trace of how she interacted with her surface: simultaneously marking and wiping it. It feels alive and dynamic even years after the painting has been completed. She refers to a movement as if she were a teacher and shows the viewer how an image is made. 

     

    The brushstrokes dominate the paper in the “Untitled” (2009) presented here by Dastan. The layer of oil is thin enough for the white under to shine through, yet heavy to make it crumble. 

  • Installation shots

    Installation shots

  • Newsha Tavakolian , Overview

    Newsha Tavakolian

    Overview

    Newsha Tavakolian (b. 1981, Tehran, Iran), a Magnum Photos member, is an Iranian photographer, visual artist, and educator known for her work that captures the human condition. Tavakolian began her career in photography at a young age, eventually becoming a prominent figure in the field. Her photography is characterized by its evocative storytelling and her keen eye for capturing the delicate emotions that shape us as humans. She has covered a wide range of topics, from the challenges faced by women in Iran and worldwide to the aftermath of tensions in conflict zones. Her work often combines artistry with documentary, blurring the lines between reality and the imagined. Throughout her career, NewshaTavakolian has received numerous awards, including the Carmignac Gestion Award, the Prince Claus Award (principal laureate), and several international photo prizes. Her photographs have been featured in prestigious exhibitions worldwide. Amongst others, Tavakolian's work has found its place in the private collections of international institutions, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the British Museum, Sackler Gallery, and the Boston Museum of Fine Art. In 2019, Tavakolian made her first short film, “For the Sake of Calmness.” She is now preparing for the production of her first feature film in Iran and Romania.

  • Newsha Tavakolian is one of the most well-known contemporary Iranian photographers. Her work often revolves around life in the city. She observes and intensely experiences things in her artistic practice, from socio-political turmoil to personal suffering. She curiously looks for how an event affects diverse groups of people and documents it all. She tries to amplify the stories of people who conventionally do not stand out. In addition to her practice, she has supported fellow photographers, artists, students, and younger generations, presenting their work at several international events and venues. 

     

    The series “Listen” (2010) shows powerful photographic portraits of Iranian women singers whose voices are often censored in the country. The images capture the performers' intensity and emotion while highlighting their challenges in pursuing their art in a restrictive environment.

  • Installation Views