Past exhibitions

As in his previous pictorial series, Ahrarnia references such qualities of the Russian Avant-Garde who greatly influenced the art and architecture of mid 20th century Iran, a cultural extension of the 19th century “Great Game”. Ahrarnia’s interest in exploring the Khatam marquetry as a mark-making medium combines an aesthetic tradition and applies it to seminal 20th century Modernist works. Ahrarnia considers the Khatam a mathematically generated self-referential process, in line with 20th century Modernist notions. Applying traditional materials and craftsmanship he uses Modernist and Constructivist paintings as a blueprint from which to lay out his Khatam mosaics, emphasizing the engagement of the modern with the traditional, the decorative with the scientific, and embedding this entanglement of various cultural sensibilities into one radiant surface. He presents a selection of Khatam works based on the sparse compositions of Max Bill, El Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich.

Ahrarnia’s latest series entitled Something for the Touts, the Nuns, the Grocery Clerks and You begins outside of the atist's studio, in the markets of Shiraz, Esfahan, Mashhad and Tehran. As a performative act, the artist has been collecting discarded packaging cardboard boxes from local businesses over the last few years, to form and compose a visual and textual archive.

Ahrarnia reads these boxes through their logos and brands as well as their individual journeys. The sculptural physicality, constructed shapes and textual details of each box allude to the modern aesthetic values of Russian Constructivists and Suprematists, encapsulating the artist's continued interest in Modernity and the changing byproducts of Modernization in both global and regional contexts.

The variation of fonts and graphics sensibilities visible on their stem from early to mid-20th century modern advertising codes which were influenced by the Russian Avant-Garde and were applied universally. Yet the usage of fonts in both Farsi and English lend and create a unique set of variations of incongruous usage of signs, languages and aesthetics which in turn reflect the dynamics of a society and her cultures in a constant state of flux and becoming.

Ahrarnia takes these boxes apart and then works with a local artist to paint circular-shaped gilded illuminations, known as tazhib, around specific parts of the boxes. Tahzib was traditionally applied around historically important and highly valued religious and devotional texts as a . In these works, the application of Tazhib has been "mis-appropriated" and is adopted as a decorative and celebratory device to to raise the significance and cultural value of the found objects.

Since sanctions have been lifted after 36 years of embargo on Iran, the country’s historical position as a manufacturing plant, with much industry, has been brought to light. Through his cardboard series, the artist examines the advancing formation of rapid and aggressive consumption patterns across Iran and new possibilities of soft power through trade and commerce.

Exhibitions

Rand Abdul Jabbar

Yazan Khalili Featured in Group Exhibiton at Wende Museum

Shahpour Pouyan at the Johnson Museum of Art

Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim Takes Part in Group Exhibition at Al Safa Art & Design Library

Alia Ahmad: 'Aspects [مظاهر]'

Augustine Paredes: Artist's Room at Jameel Arts Centre

Shahpour Pouyan to Exhibit First Solo Museum Show in the US: 'Winter in Paradise'

Dima Srouji: 'Charts for a Resurrection'

Mohamed Melehi | La Biennale di Venezia

Mona Saudi, Mohamed Melehi, and Mehdi Moutashar | The Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris

Driss Ouadahi at Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal, Germany

Mandy El-Sayegh: A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose

Timo Nasseri at the Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art (SAMoCA)

Ishmael Randall-Weeks: Desert Displacements

Mounir Fatmi at the Pola Museum of Art in Japan

Augustine Paredes, Solo Exhibition | 'Yearning The Sun To Fall', Fffriedrich, Frankfurt

NABIL NAHAS: TETHYS

'Mehdi Moutashar: Introspection as Resistance' at Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art

Yazan Khalili & Mohamed Ahmed ibrahim in 'Unwritten, Unspoken & Told' Exhibition

Dima Srouji at London Design Festival

Augustine Paredes, solo exhibition | 'Light, Leaks', Foundry, Dubai

Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim at the Bihar Museum

Christie's London: Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World

Mona Saudi & Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim at Sharjah Art Foundation

Mohamed Melehi: The Casablanca Art School at Tate St Ives

Hamra Abbas at the Misk Art Institute

Timo Nasseri: All Borrow Their Light

Augustine Paredes | 'The Bitter Taste of Sweetness', AlUla, Saudi Arabia

Larry Amponsah: The Soil From Which We Came

Shaikha Al Mazrou: Dwelling in the Gap

Shahpour Pouyan at the Hayward Gallery

Nathaniel Rackowe: Fractured Landscapes

TAKING SHAPE: ABSTRACTION FROM THE ARAB WORLD, 1950S – 1980S

Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim: Embryonic Coat

Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim: Between Sunrise and Sunset

Hamra Abbas: COLOR | GARDEN

Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale: Feeling the Stones

Run With The Wolves

Ishmael Randall Weeks: Formas Desplazadas (Displaced Forms)

Mehdi Moutashar: Cardinal Points

Under Construction Part II

Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim: Dusk Till Dawn

Under Construction

Boundary Space

Farhad Ahrarnia: The Lacemaker

Blue

We Do Not Dream Alone: Asia Society Triennial

Arabian Moucharabieh

New Waves: Mohamed Melehi and the Casablanca Art School Archives

Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim: Memory Drum

The Invented History

Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize

Miniature 2.0

Global(e) Resistance

In Vitro

Mophradat's Consortium Commission

Upsurge: Waves, Colour and Illusion

Rearranging the Riddle

Our world is burning

SQUARE PRISM

Vivien Zhang: Soft Borders

A Matter of Resilience

Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s

Every Colour is a Shade of Black

Heirloom

Hamra Abbas: Open Cube

Trees: Gardens of Paradise

Refuge

New Waves - Melehi and the Casablanca Art School Archives

Larissa Sansour: AFTER

Utopian Imagination

Clapping with Stones: Art and Acts of Resistance

GET UP, STAND UP NOW GENERATIONS OF BLACK CREATIVE PIONEERS

Extra Muros

Heirloom

New Waves: Mohamed Melehi and the Casablanca Art School Archives

Materialize

The Space Between the Eyelid and the Eyeball

Impossible Ordinary