Fatemeh Bahman Siyahmard

Opening on 21st July 2023
On view until 11th August 2023

Artists:
Mehdi Farhadian, Nasim Davari, Fatemeh Bahman Siyahmard, Koosha Moossavi, Maryam Farshad, Shaqayeq Ahmadian, Hamed Sahihi, Sara Tavana, Shahryar Gharaei, Maryam Farzadian, Marjian Hoshiar, Sanahin Babajanians, Sara Assareh, Shahrzad Argahinejad, Siamak Nasr, Leila Nouraei

The exhibition aims to bring together a divergent set of works. Representing, but also upsetting, the relationship between the artists and their connection to reality. Spheres that contain paradoxes and manage to juxtapose the ideal with the unattainable.
Breaking away from the harsh realities is a Persian Tradition manifested in our literature and arts, even in our timeless tradition of humor. The tough realism of every day is compensated by stepping into another dimension, cherishing illusions that replace the real world.
Here are exaggerated floating spaces – a placeless place- yet in connection with the spaces that remain outside them. Within these spaces, we are alive, free of borders and restrictions, away from the mundane, and separated from the gloom that engulfs our land. Able to float in an archipelago of plurality, as we are supposed to.
Nazila Noebashari

Opening on 24th February 2023
On View until 17th March 2023

Artists:
Farhad Ahrarnia, Shaqayeq Ahmadian, Sara Assareh, Samira Eskandarfar, Mohamad Eskandari, Ebrahim Eskandari, Reihaneh Afzalian, Sanahin Babajanians, Fatemeh Bahman Siyahmard, Dadbeh Bassir,Parisa Taghipour, Sara Tavana, Manijeh Hejazi, Parisa Hejazi, Sara Hosseini, Zari Hosseini, Hamid Hemayatian, Anahita Darabbeigi, Nasim Davari, Raoof Dashti, Navid Salajegheh, Sara Soleimani Qashqayi,Amir Hossein Shahnazi, Hamed Sahihi, Nastaran Safaei, Bahar Samadi, Kiarang Alaei, Maryam Farzadian, Mayram Farshad, Mehdi Farhadian, Naghmeh Ghassemlou, Amirali Ghasemi, Narges Mohamadian, Shirin Mellatgohar,Koosha Moossavi, Parsoua Mahtash, Elmira Mirmiran, Allahyar Najafi, Siamak Nasr, Nazgol Nayeri, Leila Nouraei, Mohammad Hamzeh, Marjan Hoshiar.

Don’t be sad, my land!
I have planted flower seeds in your wounds
One day there will be flower everywhere…
Alireza Roushan

For Women, For Life, For Freedom

It is through artistic creations that Iran reveals her true self and this many believe constitutes her most precious legacy. The Persian legacy has endured many turbulences of history. No historical shock has been able to break the chain. There were interruptions, yet they always permitted even provoked a resumption of creativity; ideas, styles, techniques forcefully imposed, were accepted and integrated in to our existing practice. The Iranian spirit is a tenacious one, we can endure extremes and at the same time our thousands of years of history teaches us to remain optimistic and persistent.
Throughout the last forty-four years of our perpetual revolution, the visual artists have had to carve their independence; in the first years the universities were purged through the so-called Cultural Revolution and artists and professors had to look for other jobs or start private classes. Many left the country. Although it was a difficult struggle, but they succeeded in achieving autonomy from a Regime that controls the distribution of our national wealth and would never support progressive arts. This resilient attitude which is now adapted by the younger generations, was very important in the recent difficult times where despite pressures and the fears, the visual arts has stood its ground and has been an outspoken and integral part of the structure of our brave civil society.
Our artists continue to consciously challenge the status quo and the peripheral environment as well as themselves. They insist on their sense of independence and persist in their capabilities like all other modern human beings. They help preserve a Persian legacy, enriching our lives and inspiring us as a nation to become better than we are. It is this perseverance and humility that is the source of the merit of Iranian arts and its limitless potential.
We are constantly reminded of our legendry bird: The Phoenix who is believed to possess the knowledge of all times, from ashes she rises to create wonderment, she plunges in to flames to be purified , to rise again, every time stronger, every time mightier.
Nazila Noebashari

Opening on 8th July 2022
On view until 5th August 202

Fatemeh Bahman Siyahmard- Parisa Taghipour- Elmira Mirmiran- Maryam Farshad- Koosha Moossavi- Ebtehaj Ghanadzadeh- Noushin Jafari- Faezeh Baharlou. Siamak Nasr.

The exhibition aims to bring together a divergent set of works. Representing, but also upsetting, the relationship between the artists and their connection to reality. Spheres that contain paradoxes and manage to juxtapose the ideal with the unattainable.
Openings and closings.
Slices cut off from the real world and shaped by emotional needs: Somewhere Else.
Breaking away from the harsh realities is a Persian Tradition manifested in our literature and arts, even in our timeless tradition of humor. The tough realism of the everyday is compensated by stepping into another dimension, cherishing illusions that replace the real world.
Here are exaggerated floating spaces- a placeless place- yet in connection with the spaces that remain outside them. Within these spaces, we are alive, free of borders and restrictions, away from the mundane, and separated from the gloom that engulfs our land. Able to float in an archipelago of plurality, as we are supposed to.
Nazila Noebashari

Opening on 7th January 2022
On view until 28th January 2022

Living in a mega city like Tehran by itself is an impossible act, a city that swallows soil, water, nature, and identities. Thus leaving the citizens confounded and under constant pressure. There are moments when there are no answers to be found, no solutions to the problems, and no possible future. It is no longer a place to live in; it is more a crossroad, where survival is often the only task. Sinkholes physically threaten the city, and more and more of its citizens are sinking below the poverty lines.
Breaking away from tradition, Fatemeh Bahman Siyahmard continues on the path of turning the two-dimensional into three. The curves in these new works are part of the concept of the series: to live on the edges is a difficult task, if not impossible. Creating convex and concave canvases is an attempt to collect and reflect data, much like mirrors of the same shapes used to reflect light outward or inward, thus recreating virtual images that are a variation of reality. In the smaller works that are convex-shaped, she sheds light on details of larger works. Her engagement with science is particularly influenced by outer space and is evident in the works.
Artist is showing her fears and the sense of imbalance and confusion that is part of everyday life here; the impossible situation. She speaks of never being free to contemplate what is important; there is never the peace of mind to deliberate on anything of meaning as one is always mindful of falling on either side of the edges.
These self-possessed paintings are the artist’s attempt to leave her own comfort zone to move towards the edge of what is possible. It is about taking risks and deriving pleasure from reaching one’s limitations. And It is about non-conformity and facing challenges and overcoming them.
By living on the edge, the artist stays clear of mediocrity, there is not much in the Middle, and she certainly does not belong to the Middle. Using her considerable skills as a painter, she offers her own answer to fear, ignorance, apathy, and complacency.
Nazila Noebashari

Opening on 19th February 2021
On view until 2nd April 2021

Featured artists:
Farhad Ahrarnia- Koosha Moossavi- Shirin Mellatgohar- Arezoo Shahdadi- Farshid Davoodi- Shahrzad Araghinejad- Mehdi Farhadian- Farid Jafari Samarghandi- Navid Salajegheh- Fatemeh Bahman Siyahmard-
Safora Fadaie- Maryam Farshad- Elmira Mirmiran- Mani Ramhormoozi & a project by Fatemeh Fazael Ardakani

The works in the exhibition aim to show the universality and individuality of Iranian contemporary artists. The appeal of paper as the raw material that has attracted artists for centuries remains strong. The works that will be on view are a sample of the diversity of practices of Iranian artists today, that persist in their individuality and carve their own paths. It is an adventure worth following, one that is as old as written history.

• The exhibition is the last of this year’s pandemic and a celebration in anticipation of a new year and a new century.

Completion of a Trilogy
Opening on December 11th, 2020
On view until December 28th, 2020

The Geography of Suspension, 2017
In the exhaustion between Earth and Sky, where gravity exists, right in the middle of planet Earth, where nothing is permanent, there is a haven, where everything is suspended; positives and negatives as well as decimals. Elements connected to each other with numerous threads float in a state of suspension, a concoction of highs and lows. And concepts away from the reality of the world march between time and space; fear, security, and joy of discovery, are at play in this fluid and circular geography. Artist’s deliberations were precise and astute, and her hopes and fears were revealed in the pores of her sculptures. This spectacular hubbub revealed slices of lived experiences that are indicators of artists’ inquisitive minds and fantastical subjectivity. In this world, ultimately, everything reaches an equilibrium.
The Challenge of Elements, 2019
The continued chaos – part of our daily life – next to complexity and state of suspension, in conjunction with the forced injection of order and stability, were among the characteristics of that collection. Playing within the border lines of three-dimensional statues and flat surfaces of paintings was consciously undertaken by the artist to move the viewer – even for a fraction of a second to a suspended state and to create confusion between surface and three-dimensionality. A fluid passage between two and three dimensions started and was completed simultaneously. Ultimately while the works spatially took up the space but were paintings made on the surface.
The audience faced another kind of suspension; the challenge of elements that twist, turn, and the blend was accentuated and moved through time and space to reach equilibrium and display part of life’s challenges and splendor.
19+1
The Way We Are, 2020
In this particular time of scarcities and avalanche of events and at a time of numerous domestic and foreign struggles; sanctions, inflation, recession, environmental issues, and lastly, Covid 19, this series of works has come to its end. The contradictions of our daily life can be seen in each corner. Ultimately, it was done in a game of hiding and seeking next to challenges of production and implementation, despite all difficulties.
There are still those invisible threads that sustain the state of suspension. More than before, they picture the stress and apprehensions of the moment right before the incident happens. As if we are at the last minute. The minute where everything from beginning to end passes through our mind. Frozen and silent. As if we are waiting for a meteorite to pass or for all the icebergs to melt so that finally the threads are released, and we are in a state of suspension, arriving at the point of occurrence. Now the series 19+1 is standing on its point of inception and completion, its birth and death.

Opening at Aaran Projects on 27th September 2019
On view until 21st October 2019

Moving from entirety to a fragment is an essential part of the new works of Fatemeh Bahman Siahmard. The new series is a continuation of the past series, “The Geography of Suspension,” which was exhibited in 2017. It is meant to remind, transfer and offer a re-reading of details of elements of that series. At the same time, references to the next set of works, which along with the two previous collections, will form a trilogy, are hidden in layers of the present works.
Moving from multiple elements to a few or a single one is an effort by the artist to magnify suspended elements and reference the influence and effect of these elements on their surroundings and their own. Elements that were palpable and important in previous works and presently only traces of their shadows, reflections, or just spots can be seen.
The continued chaos – part of our daily life – next to complexity and state of suspension, in conjunction with the forced injection of order and stability, are among the characteristics of the present collection. Playing within the border lines of three-dimensional statues and flat surfaces of paintings was consciously undertaken by the artist to move the viewer – even for a fraction of a second to a suspended state and to create confusion between surface and three-dimensionality. A fluid passage between two and three dimensions started was completed simultaneously and is affiliated with each other. Ultimately while the works spatially take up the space but are paintings made on the surface.
Here we face another kind of suspension; the challenge of elements that twist, turn, and blend are accentuated and move through time and space to reach equilibrium and display part of life’s challenges and splendor.