The Armory Show 2023: Group Presentation

Ardeshir Mohassess is known for his critical and humorous approach to his subject matter. His cartoons incorporated elements from the media, photography, film, Qajar-era lithography, and coffeehouse paintings. Using colored pencils, watercolor, and oil paints, he created both professional and amateurish works, employing pen and ink in many of his works. His work bridges the gap between traditional and modern Iranian art. He has influenced many Iranian cartoonists and illustrators, making it possible to refer to the tradition of drawing and figurative painting in Iran with him. His career spanned over half a century, with decisive turns in Iran’s socio-political environment.

Best known for his drawings, his cartoons and illustrations have appeared in various publications, including Keyhan-e Hafteh (Weekly Book), Tamasha (Watch), and Tehran Journal. As Mohassess's talent gained recognition, his drawings were featured in international publications such as "Jeune Afrique," "The New York Times," and "The Nation." Works of Ardeshir Mohassess have been shown in notable venues such as the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, and the Asia Society, New York. They have been acquired by prestigious collections such as the Library of Congress and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, and they have adorned the pages of more than ten books. 

Canvases of Farrokh Mahdavi can be distinguished through a unique pinkish hue. His technique aims to defamiliarize the well-known facial elements in a face. The fleshy-pink color of the artist's figures allows the rendering of "a more general depiction of human beings devoid of stereotypes of gender and race". The faces in Mahdavi’s work are reduced to features like the eyes or the lips, and the rest are covered by thick layers of pink paint, hinting at the emotional world of his characters. He tries to specify forms and conditions without directly depicting anything additional, as he believes it deviates from the main point. 

Farrokh Mahdavi exhibitions: Frieze Cork Street (London, 2022) | FIAC (Paris, 2021) | "Seemingly Playful" (Yavuz Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2021) | "The Shaving" (Electic Room, Tehran, 2017) | "The Big Shave" (Dastan's Basement, Tehran, 2016) | "City Prince/sses" (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2019) | the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). His work will also be a part of the National Gallery Victoria Triennial in December 2023.

In her work, Asal Peirovi uses various techniques and focuses on themes such as memory, travel, scenography, architecture, and nature. Her signature is the distinct handling of materials and experimentations with architectural elements inside the logic of perspective. Another trademark in her works is that she often works on unprimed and unstretched canvases. The paintings of Asal Peirovi are a combination of study and improvisation in which the artist’s creation of visual texture on fabric resembles the unpredictable behavior of nature. This allows her to use it as a context to add different layers of architectural elements opposing nature’s unpredictability. These architectural elements, inspired by Perso-Islamic historic structures, are depicted in the color palette and the perspective techniques of traditional Persian painting, invoking many elusive references that express the diversity that informs Asal Peirovi’s visual perception.

Asal Peirovi's work has been featured in many solo exhibitions and group shows. Her solo Exhibitions include: "Passing Through Alborz Range in 3’20” (Chapter, New York, 2021) | "Curtains II" (Standard (Oslo), Oslo, 2019)| "Curtains" (Dastan’s Basement, Tehran, 2018)| "Travelogue’" (Dastan’s Basement, Tehran, 2016)| Shahla’s Bridge (Shirin Art Gallery, Tehran, 2014) and her group exhibitions include "The Future" (Presented by Gagosian Gallery and Jeffrey Deitch, Paris, 2020)| "Ups & Downs" (Standard (Oslo). Oslo, 2020)| Update 5.0 (V-Gallery. Dastan:Outside. Tehran, 2017)| "Insomnia" (Assar Art Gallery. Tehran, 2016); "Zoo" (Shirin Art Gallery. Tehran, 2015)| "Happening Moment" (Sari Art Gallery. Sari, Iran, 2015)|"Infinity" (Seyhoun Gallery. Tehran, 2012)| Drawing Exhibition (Shirin Art Gallery. Tehran, 2010)| Drawing Exhibition (Mohsen Gallery. Tehran, 2009)| The 2nd Montakhabe-e Nasl-e No Exhibition (Homa Art Gallery, Tehran, 2007)| Painters from Mazandaran (Saba Cultural Center. Tehran, 2007).
Her works have been included in Art Fairs, including| "ART021" (Trio with Sepand Danesh, Mehdi Ghadynaloo, Shanghai, China, 2021)| Art Basel (Online, Represented by Standard (Oslo), Basel, 2020)| Independent Art Fair (Represented by Standard (Oslo). Basel, 2020)| Art Basel (Represented by Standard (Oslo), Basel, 2019).

Behjat Sadr known (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.

Mohsen Vaziri Moghaddam (1924 – 2018) is acknowledged as a pioneer of Iranian abstractionism and a leading figure in developing contemporary Iranian art. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. He was also an educator, opening the way for many to-be artists to go beyond the limits of established practices. His "Drawing Method and Painting Guide" (1981) is today’s standard academic text.

He is widely recognized for works spanning five decades, from the painterly abstracts of the 1960s to the hard-edged geometry of the sculpted and painted aluminum wall reliefs of his later years. Vaziri’s work is characterized by a restless experimentation of form through materials -- deployed in his drawings, sand paintings, opto-kinetic sculptures, and painted aluminum wall reliefs.

During his lifetime, Vaziri was the subject of numerous exhibitions internationally, exhibited extensively at the Venice Biennial, and was collected by MoMA (NY).