Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai is pleased to present The Passage of Time, the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. The sculptures, installations and photographs of Iranian artist Farzad Kohan seek to communicate across the divides of culture, language, religion and gender with messages of harmony and unity. As a manifestation of his desire to articulate his inner workings through the ordinary things that surround us, Kohan often making use of found objects and materials as diverse as wood, coffee, milk, motor oil and sand.

The Passage of Time will comprise a series of new mixed media paintings on wood panels examining the artist’s experience of migration and identity. Recycled newspaper clippings, printed advertisements, and thin, coloured acrylic washes are painstakingly layered through an additive and subtractive method incorporating grinding, sanding, cutting and pasting. Words and images appear like faded memories through the forty or so layers, obscured by a patina of time and distance.

In the lower portion of each panel there appears a line of text in Farsi. Almost disappearing into the vast space that surrounds them, Kohan’s words speak of both loss and hope and are expressions of the fragmented, amorphous identity that is the inevitable result of migration and exile.

About the Artist:

Born in Tehran in 1967, Farzad Kohan lives and works in Los Angeles. Solo exhibitions include the Seyhoun Gallery, Los Angeles (2006). Selected group exhibitions include Abra Gallery, Los Angeles (2011); Human Rights Awareness Tour, USA (2008); JFerrari Gallery, Los Angeles (2008); Eagle Rock Cultural Center for Arts (2008); Phantom Galleries, Los Angeles (2007).

Image: © Farzad Kohan, Ayyam Gallery