Zaal Art Gallery x Guest House: Group Presentation

Reza Abedini (b. 1967, Tehran) is an Iranian artist and graphic designer. He graduated from the University of Tehran in graphic design (1985) and Painting (1992). He is also an art critic, independent art director with Reza Abedini Studio (1993), and art director at "Manzar" magazine in Iran. He lives and works in Iran, the Netherlands, and Lebanon.

The works of Reza Abedini maintain a modern theme as he blends traditional Islamic patterns, calligraphy, and culture. He combines simple illustrations with poetic typography and elegant layouts, exploring the elaborate beauty of the Persian script and language. He is known for solving the Persian script layout problem using a technique to break the font's continuous and single-leveled baseline and to extend the height of every visual cluster to his preferred dimension.

Reza Aramesh (b. 1970, Iran) focuses on photography and sculpture. He currently lives and works in London, a city he moved to at the age of 15. He received his MFA from Goldsmiths University, London (1997).

Working in photography, sculpture, video, and performance, Reza Aramesh’s understanding of the history of art, film, and literature is ever-present in his artwork. As a commentary on war reportage, for example, Aramesh takes images of violence appearing in newspapers, online articles, and social media out of their original context to explore the narratives of representation and iconography of subjected body apropos race, class, and sexuality. His work, as such, is a critical engagement with Western art history. 

He represented Iran at the 56th Edition of the Venice Biennale and has exhibited worldwide including the UK, France, China, USA, Dubai, and Iran. He has orchestrated several performances and exhibitions in institutions including the Barbican Centre, Tate Britain, and ICA, London. Other projects have been staged in public squares, nightclubs, and industrial warehouses.

Ida Aslanian (b. 1957, Iran) is an Iranian born artist of Armenian descent. She moved to Geneva in 1970, where she studied at the School of Fine Arts (1978-1982).

Ida Aslanian's body of work deconstructs and simplifies the rich tradition of Persian miniature painting to arrive at subtle formations that nevertheless evoke the spirit of this centuries-old artform. Ida Aslanian's early works were very bright, playing on her memories of the rich Iranian visual landscape. On her move to Switzerland, she found her surroundings a constant source of inspiration. One element particularly struck her: the subdued and mysterious colors that she encountered. As a result her oeuvres became increasingly silent and her palette darker. Inspired by Rothko, Nicholson, and Rosenberg, influenced by an ethos that disfavors figurative representation, her art moved towards structural abstraction and representing the void.

Hoda Kashiha (b. 1986, Tehran, Iran) is a graduate of Painting from the University of Tehran (BA, 2009) and Boston University (MFA, 2014). She works and lives in Tehran.

Works of Hoda Kashiha bounce between everyday life and the imagery she sets out to produce. Through the use of non-linear narrative, dark humor, and mythological, religious, and modern icons, the artist meets with difficult moments in her personal and political life. Drawing from a variety of references – "from Malevich to Instagram" – she composes her fragmented narratives. Kashiha uses digital tools to first draw a work and then construct it on canvas, layer upon layer. Nevertheless, this way of fragmenting motifs deals with major contemporary subjects such as persisting gender relations. The body plays an important role in many of the artist’s works. It's through the body that she relates to the world, becomes aware of her desires, and constructs an identity. Drawing the body not only projects her personal life but also the external world. Being interested in man and woman interaction, she uses various tools (airbrush, i-Pad, stencil) and subjects (body fragments, geometric abstraction) that affect an ambiguity that separates traditional definitions of male-female, resulting in gender fluidity.

Jacopo Pagin (b. 1988, Italy) is a painter, installation artist, and sculptor based in Brussels, Belgium. He earned his degree in painting and decoration from the Accademia di Belle Arti, Venice, in 2013 and completed his MFA in Fine Arts at LUCA School of Arts, Brussels, in 2018.

Although Pagin’s work is entirely contemporary in its language, it engages with multiple historical periods. Its sophistication recalls the Mannerism of the late 16th century, its ornamentation echoes the Rococo aesthetics of the mid-18th century, and its dreamlike atmosphere evokes the grandiose Neoclassicism of the 1930s. Yet, his aesthetic seems unanchored in any of these eras -- or perhaps even in our own. The repetition of reflections in mirrors and water, along with the transparency of glass objects, lends his works a mysterious quality that feels both ethereal and futuristic.

Pagin integrates elements of contemporary life into his compositions, yet his idiosyncratic expression and unexpected arrangements transform them, stripping them of their familiarity and imbuing them with new identities. This deliberate ambiguity leaves the viewer suspended between recognition and wonder.

His recent solo exhibitions include "Hidden Place" (2024) at Public Gallery, London; "Strategies Against Time" (2022) at Pond Society, Singapore; "Roaring Shelters" (2022) and "Fata Morgana" (2022) at Make Room, Los Angeles. He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including "The Descendants" (2023) at K11 Foundation, Hong Kong; "Evening Shadow" (2023) at Make Room, Los Angeles; "Your Mind is a Mirror" (2023) at Pangée, Montreal; "Uncanny Depths" (2022) at Centre d’Art de la Cité Radieuse (MAMO), Marseille; "Machines of Desire" (2022) at Simon Lee Gallery, London; "The Views" (2022) at Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles; "I Dwell in Possibility" (2022) at SPURS Gallery, Beijing; "Manta Rei" (2022) at Materia Gallery, Rome; "Anima Mundi" at Abbaye de Saint-Victor, Manifesta XIII, Marseille; and "Art Brussels 2022" with Make Room.

Roksana Pirouzmand (b. 1990, Yazd, Iran) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Los Angeles. She received her BFA from the California Institute of the Arts and is a current MFA candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles. She started her artistic career in 2008, mainly doing interactive performances.

Her artistic interest focuses on the interaction between the human body as a receiver/viewer and as an activator/performer, with the materials’ qualities often serving as a method of communication between the two. She expresses her ideas through mediums such as sculpture, installation, video, and performance art. 

Iman Raad (b. 1979, Mashhad, Iran) is a Brooklyn-based visual artist, designer, and educator. He holds an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University, and is presently teaching at The Cooper Union School of Art.

Across his diverse work, Raad brings together a sweeping reimagining of traditional Persian painting amidst the interruption of images and narratives in the internet era. Oscillating between disparate areas of knowledge, Raad references a culture indexically rooted within his thoughts. Curiosity is given a place to breathe. Images are fractured or incomplete. Moments from different art histories are filtered into a language of comfort and contented longing, memories of a smell of a place far away; a repetition of imagery and color whose intention is to keep you in a disturbed reality.

In Raad's paintings, objects tumble and waver, provoked by swathes of restless birds. Deep tonal flourishes are augmented by a restless energy across his works–enhanced by a variety of techniques of depiction like the reverse painting on glass and the egg tempera. Through this prism of layers and colors, Raad has found a necessary platform to touch on both the complexities and beauty of cross cultural expression today.

Mamali Shafahi (b. 1982, Tehran) graduated with a BA in Photography from Tehran University of Art (2002) and studied at ENSAPC (École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts Paris). He is a filmmaker and video installation artist. 

His practice, varying from installation to sculpture and film, includes a deep fascination with the impact of emerging technologies on life and art. His early work in France at the Paris-Cergy School of Fine Arts focused on performance. He then produced several video installations investigating the relationship between past, present, future, and new technologies.