Farhad Moshiri - Galerie Perrotin

Farhad Moshiri
SILLY YOU, SILLY ME
76 rue de Turenne : October 22 - December 23, 2009
For the first time in France, the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin is presenting Farhad Moshiri’s exhibition SILLY YOU, SILLY ME,
from October 22 to December 23, 2009.
The dazzling colors and hybrid materials of Farhad Moshiri’s recent works - paintings and installations - immediately capture the eye.
Alternating between minimalism and mannerism, they are part to an Iranian artistic tradition of calligraphy and miniature, as well as Western pop imagery. Moshiri plays with
the codes of modernism while developing a flamboyant iconography.
Beyond these seemingly attractive works lies a more painful and more complex reality, visible showing just beneath the surface, that is imbued with nostalgia and irony. The
artwork entitled LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL is emblematic, this joyful leitmotiv is written with an accumulation of knives stuck in the wall of the Gallery. Farhad Moshiri has created
a new series of paintings made of beads embroidery and acrylic painting; the subjects are sometimes falsely childish as if escaped from a cartoon or a fairy tale. The artist
is inviting us to go through the mirror of appearance.
La Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin presente pour la première fois en France l’exposition Farhad Moshiri SILLY YOU, SILLY ME
du 22 octobre au 23 décembre 2009.
Les œuvres récentes de Farhad Moshiri, peintures et installations, séduisent d’emblée par leurs couleurs éclatantes et leurs matériaux
hybrides. Oscillant entre minimalisme et maniérisme, elles s’inscrivent dans une tradition artistique iranienne de la calligraphie et de
l’enluminure, mais aussi de l’imagerie pop occidentale. Farhad Moshiri joue avec les codes de la modernité tout en développant une iconographie
flamboyante.
Au delà de cette douceur apparente, une réalité plus douloureuse et plus complexe se révèle en filigrane, empreinte de nostalgie et d’ironie. L’œuvre intitulée LIFE IS
BEAUTIFUL est emblématique, ce joyeux leitmotiv est écrit avec une accumulation de couteaux plantés dans le mur de la galerie.
Dans les tableaux présentés à la Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Farhad Moshiri s’approprie une technique dite «féminine», la broderie de perles, qu’il combine avec l’acrylique. Les sujets sont parfois faussement enfantins, comme échappés d’un dessin animé ou d’un conte (Un cowboy chevauche un tracteur
au cri de Yipeeee, un enfant chute dans le vide accompagné d’un loup, Fallen). D’autres décrivent des scènes du quotidien (une femme se rase les jambes, Hair,
une autre dort seule Half and Half, une autre encore suggère à son mari de réfléchir, Think...) L’artiste invite le spectateur à traverser le miroir des apparences.
HEADACHES FOR EVERYONE, 2009
Embroidery and acrylic on canvas - 11.5 inches x 59 feet / 150 x 350 cm
Life is beautiful, 2009
Knives
Farhad Moshiri is born in 1963 in Shiraz, Iran. He lives and works in Tehran.
Solo Exhibitions : «Silly you, Silly me», Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris ; Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium ; Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, USA ; Daneyal Mahmood
Gallery, Chelsea, NY, USA ; Dar al Fonoon Gallery, Kuwait (lucy Topalian curator) ; «CANDY STORE», The Third Line Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirated ; Threshold of Hap, exstraspazio, Rome, Italy ; Albareh
Gallery, Bahrain ; Operation Supermarket, with Shirin Aliabadi, The Counter Gallery, London, United Kingdom ; Operation Supermarket, with Shirin Aliabadi, Kolding Design School, Copenhagen ; The Third Line
Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirated ; «Exstraspazio», Rome, Italy; Art Space Gallery, curated by Isabelle Van Den Eynde De Rivieren, Dubai, United Arab Emirated; Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York, USA ;
Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland ; Leighton House Museum, curated by Rose Issa, London, United Kingdom; 13 Vanak Street Gallery, Tehran, Iran; Heaven,13 Vanak Street Gallery, Tehran, Iran ;
13 Vanak Street Gallery, Tehran, Iran ; Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Group Exhibitions : «Raad O Bargh», Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris ; «Iran Inside Out», Chelsea Art Museum, New York ; Art without borders, Tehran Gallery, University of Tehran, Iran ; Neighbours in Dialogue,
Feshane cultural center, curated by Beral Madra, Istanbul, Turkey ; «Iran.com», Museum of New Art, Freiburg, Germany ; «Images of the Middle East», Copenhagen, Danmark ; «Art without Borders», Armenian
Centre for Contemporary Experimental Art, Yerevan, Armenia ; «V-Day», Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York, USA ; «Word into Art. Artists of the Modern Middle East», curated by Venetia Porter, British Museum,
London, United Kingdom ; «Ethnic Marketing», 13 Vanak Street Gallery, Tehran, Iran ; «After the Revolution», curated by Octavio Zaya, KM Kulturunea Erakustaretoa, San Sebastian, Spain; quasi niente / almost
nothing, e x t r a s p a z i o, Rome, Italy ; «Welcome», curated by Farhad Moshiri, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York, USA ; «It’s Hard to Touch the Real», Kunstverein, Munich, Germany,- Tallinn Kunsthalle,
Tallinn, Estonie - Unge Kunstnerers Samfund UKS (The Association of Young Artists), Oslo, Norway - Yeans (artist-run-space), Gothenburg - Bildmuseet Umeå, University College of Fine Arts, Umeå, Sweden ;
«Entfernte Nähe», curated by Rose Issa, House of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany ; «Iran under the Skin», curated by Firouz Firouz, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain ; «Ethnic Marketing», curated by Martine Anderfuhren
e Tirdad Zolghadr, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland ; «Turning Points», curated by Media Farzin, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York, USA ; «Iranian Pool», curated by Maria
Chus Martinez, Casa Asia/ARCO, Madrid, Spain ; «Casa Asia», curated by Maria Chus Martinez, Barcelona, Spain ; Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, UAE, Emirats Arabes Unis ; Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art,
Malmo, Sweden ; «Continuous Stroke of a Breath», curated by Afsaneh Firouz, Harvard University, Boston, USA ; «Haft», curated by Michket Krifa, l’Espace Landowski, Ville de Boulogne- Billancourt, France ;
Tehran Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran ; Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
For all images / Pour toutes les images: Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris
For any additional information, please contact / Pour toute demande d’information, merci de contacter :
Héloïse Le Carvennec [email protected] T. + 33 1 42 16 91 80