Shaqayeq Ahmadian

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 24th September 2021
On view until 8th October 2021

Shaqayeq Ahmadian captures life through a playful, exhilarating lens. Guided by her own sense of perception, she paints with immediacy and truthfulness. The immersive effect puts viewers squarely in the artist’s world. Her different layers of experience are eccentric and emerge through choices of colors and form. She engages with the past and present and offers a possible future.
In new series of works, the artist embraces nature and creates her own mother nature, the colorful, strong goddess with hair like rays of sunshine; with her many wounds visible in her bulky body, she gathers the tears in her palms and offers them back to nature. The artist’s unconsciousness has driven her to form the body and soul of her own unique goddess.
In her vista of a broad sweeping view of a seaside leisure place, mothers and children are playfully depicted, an image that is forbidden in our land or at least is not often seen. A wishful scenery where the valiant birds fearlessly interact with humans. The artist covers up her childhood fear of the sea, finds the rush of waves soothing, becomes friends with mermaids, and is no longer afraid of the depth of the sea. The figures stare at the viewer, confident and strong. The birds, always a metaphor for freedom, are ever present in the works. There is a fundamental interplay between objects and paintings, two and three dimensions, where her animated figures appear to have stepped out of canvases.
The artist embraces life, ignores her fears, and surpasses the limitations and difficulties of life in her homeland. Her unrelenting strive to better herself and to pass on the joy of discovery to those around her is exemplary. It is as if she holds her own mantle of light, grins at the world and its complexities, and purposely shares her exhilarating optimism. She refuses to adhere to the norms of society and continues to craft her own path. Her honest approach to life and her art remain pure and striking.
Nazila Noebashari

Opening at Aaran Projects on August 30th, 2019
On view until September 23rd, 2019

The joy of living is the cornerstone of every single work of Shagayeq Ahmadian. Her flamboyant, sparkling, and animated figures are part of her existence, a passion she readily shares and distributes.
Her practice is a fundamental interplay between objects, figures, media, and two and three dimensions, stitching together a subjective account of her lived experience, of the life of a young female artist in her homeland that, despite all limitations, manages to attract us and hold our attention. Her narrative structures feature the unpleasant and grotesque, where everyone is saved by their love for cuddly animals and life itself. This is an abstract dreamscape.
Three-dimensional pieces seem to have been extracted from her paintings to accentuate her story. Light bulbs, birthday cakes, and loveable animals are all her grimaces at life’s difficulties. Grinning at the world and its complexities, this young artist refuses to adhere to the norms of society and crafts her own path. Creating a festive atmosphere that instantly transfers the joy of living to others and covers up deep wounds.
Her honest approach to life and her art is pure and striking, an attitude that is enchanting and exhilarating in the present state of things. It is simply joyful to exist within her realm and to be a witness to her growth and her joie de vivre.

A group exhibition
Opening at Aaran Projects on 20th July 2018
On view until 6th August

If traditionally depiction of the perfect body was used to explore and express allegory, beauty and ‎sexuality, in recent decades the perception has changed and there has been a focus on imperfections ‎with many artists refraining from chasing the mirage of perfection. This exhibition aims to show ‎imperfections and reality depicted in the works of these three artists whose practice circles around ‎human body with the obvious intention of offering their own stories and interpretations. In these ‎highly emotional works, imperfection is the key. Deficiency is a virtue, flaws are celebrated, ‎inadequacy is enough, and the ugly is beautiful. ‎

Shaqayeq Ahmadian, at tender age of 23, provokes an emotive reaction because we are familiar with ‎these scenes and functions; a birthday party, the memory of a picture taken with our friend or sister, ‎the photograph of a favorite pet. Our memory of similar experiences can be happy or distressing or ‎negative or altogether positive, and it is this connection that endears her work to the viewer. With ‎simple lines and materials and with a free and playful approach, she offers ambiguity; what will happen ‎next, why is it happening, what will be the outcome. She leaves the viewer lingering on, hoping for the ‎best and bracing themselves for the worst. The images are open ended; there is no finality and no ‎lessons to be learned, only a sigh, a moment, a little bit of happiness or not.‎

Farzad Shekari, in his series Kane and Abel, offers similar vagueness. The first question that arises is ‎which image is Kane and which one is Abel. The end of this infamous story is well known, but what ‎happened before that? What transpired? Who did what first? In his simple yet entirely controlled style, ‎he tells a tale of brotherhood, manhood, betrayal, guilt and remorse. In these fluid paintings the focus ‎is on emotions and viewer can track the dotted lines, leading them to explore the fate of boys that ‎grow to men. Appropriating such a legendry tale, artist refrains from painting heroes’ body or that of a ‎fallen one. There are no victims and no winners, there is only the sad tale of people who are incapable ‎of coming together and celebrating their similarities rather than their fears and obsessions.‎

Parisa Taghipour’s dramatic figures salute the legendary female heroines of human history as well as ‎Persian mythology. Eve and Anahita and Tahmina are molded to bring their story to 21st century: Eve ‎that is mother to all, Anahita who is the goddess of water, fertility and healing, Tahmina the female ‎heroine of Shahnameh who embraced her fallen son. The imperfect female body, camouflaged (to ‎avoid censorship) with glands and tumors, are perhaps references to broken souls of many women ‎who have suffered in our patriarchal society for centuries. In a system that is concerned with the virtue ‎of its women and not its men, these bold, broken and highly expressive figures, are worthy substitutes ‎for legendry heroines and goddesses.‎