FA Gallery: Body Language in the eyes of Iranian artists

FA Gallery‘s Group Exhibition of Iranian artists : Iman Safaei, Katayoun Karami, Mohamad Mehdi Tabatabaie, Samira Eskandarfar, Shima Esfandiary, Jahed Sarboland.

The inclusion of a rose in each work as the most common symbol of love, depicts a softer and more romantic side of the Middle Eastern male while Safaei’s soldiers and pahlevans or athletes, recall a tougher side. Katayoun Karami’s double self portraits depict her on one side and a style of hair – the physical attribute every Muslim woman is required to conceal – on the other.

Human & Numbers by Iman Safaei, 2008, 80 x 106 cm, embroidery and digital print on canvas

Shima Esfandiari and Mojtaba Tabatabaee depict illnesses, both physical and emotional. Esfandiari’s female forms in various positions – under a blanket, slumped over or on hands and knees – all hint at a level of discomfort and pain and suffering. Tabatabaee’s large canvases or human forms in grey tonalities are lit using small red lights along curved lines resembling scars.

Day by Shima Esfandiari, 182 x 105 cm, mixed media on canvas

Jahed Sarboland’s German Expressionistic inspired works focus on the current political conditions in society. Faces commonly associated with the behind-the-desk characters of a bureaucratic system peer out of these brightly colored canvases in an impersonal and distant gaze.

Untitled by Jahed Sarboland, 2010, 195 x 195 cm, acrylic on canvas