Nearest tubes: Oxford Circus, Regents Park and Portland Street.
Made in Iran is a group show, providing a rare chance to see some of the most exciting work by young contemporary artists currently living and working in the modern Islamic Republic of Iran. Opening at Asia House on 23rd June, the exhibition celebrates the vibrancy of this new generation of artists, revealing how they reconcile their artistic practice with working in a post-revolutionary landscape dominated by a complex political and religious hegemony.
The artists featured in Made in Iran have developed their own visual practices in response to their experience of life in Tehran - a city where 70% of the population are under 35. Working in diverse media from photography to digital drawing, the exhibition highlights how they and their peers attempt to circumvent authority by evolving their own strategies of self expression. Although life is full of constraints, there is a desire to live in Tehran and, through their art, create a bearable alternative whilst examining issues of tradition and modernity, the public and the private experience of daily life, nostalgia and belonging.
Artists exhibiting:
Nazgol Ansarinia
Shirin Aliabadi
Peyman Hooshmandzadeh
Behrouz Rae
Arash Hanaei
Vahid Sharifian
Simin Keramati
About the curators A&E
Made in Iran is the first collaboration by curators and art consultants Arianne Levene and Églantine de Ganay who have spent the last 5 years travelling to source the most interesting emerging artists for foundations and private collectors. For both Levene and de Ganay, Made in Iran is the culmination of their experience of major emerging non-European art markets and follows comprehensive visits to over 40 artists' studios to select works for the exhibition.
'While there is a lot of interest in Iranian art, often the focus is on the more established artists who fit with an exoticised view of Iran,' says Levene, 'we wanted to show a vibrant new generation of artists whose practice reflects a more heterogeneous view of life there.'
