Abu Dhabi Art 2023: Group Presentation

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.

Kourosh Shishegaran (b. 1945, Qazvin, Iran) is an Iranian modernist painter whose early works were primarily associated with graphic design and happenings in public spaces. He is a Painting graduate from the School of Visual Arts (1970) and Interior Design from the University of Tehran (1974). "For Peace in Lebanon" (1976), one of his early graphic works, succeeded in connecting with a larger public, an aspiration he has pursued throughout his career. He became a full-time studio painter after the Revolution of 1979.

His works have been showcased in over 16 solo and over 30 group exhibitions, including Art Basel in 1979 and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (1990-91).

Parviz Tanavoli was born in Tehran in 1937. Upon graduating from the Brera Academy of Milan in 1959, he taught sculpting at the Tehran College of Decorative Arts, and from 1961 - 1963 he thought at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He then returned to Iran and assumed the head of sculpting department at the University of Tehran, a position he held for 18 years until 1979, when he retired from his teaching duties.

Since 1989 he has lived and worked both in Tehran and Vancouver, Canada. His latest solo exhibition was in 2019 at the West Vancouver Art Museum entitled "Oh Nightingale". Prior to that, he had another solo exhibition in 2017 at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art based on his Lions works and Lion collection.

In 2003 he had a major retrospective at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and one in 2009 at the Meem gallery, in Dubai, and in 2011 at Austin Desmond Gallery, London. Prior to that he had held acclaimed solo exhibitions in Austria, Italy, Germany, the United States, Britain and numerous other countries. Similarly, his group exhibitions have been held on three continents.

His work has been displayed at the British Museum - London, the Grey Art Gallery - New York University, the Isfahan City Center - Iran, Metropolitan Museum - New York, Minneapolis Institute of Art - Minneapolis, Olympic Park - Seoul, S. Korea, Qatar National Museum, Royal Museum - Jordan, Royal Scottish Museum - UK, the Museum of Modern Art - Vienna, Museum of Modern Art - New York, Walker Art Center - Minneapolis, Shiraz University - Iran, Tate Modern - London and in numerous other prestigious venues around the world.