Afarin Sajedi, Garden Dinner
Courtesy of Dorothy Circus Gallery
and the artist
Afarin Sajedi, Bon Appétit Duncan
Afarin Sajedi, born and grown up in Iran and later moved in Paris, is a world-renowned artist who has made a name for herself in the world of contemporary art with her personal, powerful and unique style.
Her art reflects the Persian heritage and explores themes of identity, culture, and history.
The artist began drawing and painting at a very young age.
Her vision is deeply influenced by the Italian Renaissance, the history of European art and, in particular, by Gustave Klimt and the literary works of Heinrich Böll.
Her artistic journey intertwines also with the magical symbolism and more contemporary influences of American Pop Surrealism and Asian Neo-Pop.
Her characters evoke at the same time the elaborate nuances of Shakespearean dramas, Lars von Trier’s films, and the surreal adventures of Cervantes and Calvino.
In 2013, invited by the Dorothy Circus Gallery, Sajedi held her first solo exhibition in Europe in Rome, as part of the “Inside Her Eyes” exhibition.
Her paintings are characterized by a surreal atmosphere, strong and expressive colors, through which the artist reflects the complexity of the human experience and the importance of preserving cultural heritage and identity.
The artist primarily depicts women, with their bizarre hairstyles, blushed lips and cheeks, standing against solid-colored backgrounds, often accompanied by symbolic objects or living elements like fish.
These women often appear immersed in a deep sea of tranquility and pleasant silence. Yet, they are women with eloquent gazes that speak to us even with closed lips. They have expressive, proud faces, but very human in their approach to life and the various emotions they feel.
They are bold women who understand suffering, who live with conflicting feelings, strong emotions, joys, and sorrows.
Afarin Sajedi, Bon Appétit
Afarin Sajedi, Mademoiselle Proust
Afarin Sajedi, Bon Appétit Bloody Mary
Their lips are often sealed shut, or sometimes not even painted. This expresses the impossibility of communication, which occurs entirely through their vivid and eloquent eyes, in some cases covered by glasses or headgear, or veiled, but always expressive.
“I really love faces. I adore details and drawing the details of the face. Especially the eyes, I focus a lot on those because I believe they truly represent people’s thoughts, without the possibility of lying. The eyes are the mirror of the soul”, affirms Afarin Sajedi.
Eyes are fundamental elements in Sajedi’s portraits. For the artist, the world is reflected precisely in the gazes of her characters. Their eyes shout what closed mouths cannot. In their gazes, we can glimpse an inner conflict made of fear and hope, but above all, great strength. Yet, often, the eyes are closed, emphasizing their ability to observe the world through an ‘inner sight’ for which physical eyes are not needed.
Sajedi offers us a unique opportunity to explore her inner world and reflect on the status of women in the contemporary context.
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Grace Eunshin Kim, Celebration Il
Grace Eunshin Kim’s art is a dynamic and playful exploration of contemporary society through a masterful interplay of references to the great works of art history.
Born in Seoul and based in Canada, her work is highly influenced by the divine images of the 13th-15th century European Renaissance paintings.
Her works, illuminated by a vibrant palette, exude an exuberant plastic force and convey a sense of tension towards equilibrium, in constant reference to the mysterious code of the Italian Renaissance. Through an innovative combination of hues, the artist’s playful scenarios are pervaded by a deep sense of surreality.
Kim is a master of suspense, transporting us into a static yet historical dimension where her figures are often depicted in a state of solemn contemplation, almost hesitant about taking their next action and revealing a perpetual inner conflict.
Grace Eunshin Kim, Choir Practice
The tension and the inclination of Kim’s populated scenarios represent the constant search for happiness. In the portrayal of Kim’s stories, the balance of happiness is consumed between the desire to act and the instant before. Recalling the moment in which Eve’s hand leans over to reach the forbidden fruit, in the hope of complete happiness and knowledge of all similarly, in the characters portrayed by Kim happiness is displayed along with the hope for more but fear of losing the desired pursuit.
Grace Eunshin Kim, Him, Triptych
Grace Eunshin Kim, Him, Triptych
Grace Eunshin Kim, Moving Out III
Kim distinguishes herself as the dynamic and vibrant spirit. Expertly declined across a combination of playfuland populated scenarios, the artist bestows sacredness with the ‘Still Image’ effect.
Her works have a profound impact on the viewer, evoking a sense of precarious absurdity as one navigates through the complex and layered landscape of the mind. The passage that her works open onto is one that leads to the abyss of the mind, a place where time seems to lose its meaning and instead gives way to a sole momentum of tension and flow. This elusive present that her works embody is one in which reason and imagination come together in a harmonious dance, like opposite twins united in a shared purpose. The viewers are invited to become fully immersed in this world, to lose themselves in the depth and complexity of the artist’s vision and to discover new insights and perspectives. The artist’s work is not only a visual experience, but also a daily search for happiness and the meaning of life.
Kim’s artworks are characterized by the intricate interweaving of the faces of the protagonists with masks, creating a densely populated mise en scène that blurs the boundaries between the real and the fantastical. The tension in her scenarios is both dramatic and ironic, as she masterfully blends elements of different artistic traditions to create something entirely new and original. The viewer can see the influence of dynamic Cranach-like landscapes, as well as dramatic scenarios reminiscent of Masaccio’s “Adoration”, all reset within the mood of Pierre Bonnard’s “Evenings in Paris”, and all frozen in time by the ‘Still Image’ effect borrowed from Balthus.
This eclectic mix of inspiration gives birth to Kim’s visually striking compositions, which are characterized by a sense of depth and dimensionality that draws the viewer into the narrative. The artist uses perspective and spatial relationships to create an immersive experience that is not only visually striking, but also emotionally resonant.
The desire to act, and the previous instance, consume the pursuit of maintaining a happy balance. All this, almost recalling the moment in which Eve’s hand reaches down to reach the forbidden fruit, in denial of a possible happiness once the knowledge of good and evil has been internalized.
All together resulting in a constant but subtle tribute, greatly executed to the uniqueness of Kim’s detailing, who doesn’t miss any chance to pervade every canvas of her Asian heritage.
It is even possible to deduce the kaleidoscopic sentimental representation of “Celebration II”. The adoration of the Magi is represented across the surrealism of her characters which, far from discrediting the spirituality of the occasion, celebrates the greatest influences of a mocking Magritte.
In her new body of work titled “The Meeting,” presented in a double solo exhibition with Jeffrey Chong Wang, Kim allows us to peek through the windows that open onto the everyday nuances of love while she explores both hers and her partner’s visions of the sentimental relationship that characterizes the story of these two artists in life and work.
Kim’s art is marked by a parallelism between ancient and contemporary visual language, where she masterfully mixes symbolism, deftly weaving together a narrative of love and pursuit. She uses traditional imagery such as religious iconography, mythology, and symbolism to create a sense of continuity with the past, but at the same time, her art is not simply a nostalgic tribute to the past. Instead, it serves to give back a sense of the sacred in our modern-day lives, depicting moments of contemporary existence rather than mystic scenes.
In Kim’s artwork, consumerist labels such as iPhones, Nike trainers, and popular drinks are prominently featured throughout her compositions. These symbols of consumerism serve as a replacement for the traditional symbol of the apple, which has been used throughout art history to convey ideas about morality, temptation, and the human condition. The apple, which is often associated with religious and mythological significance, is traditionally seen as a symbol of the sacred. However, in Kim’s art, consumerist labels are used to represent the desacralized, the mundane, and the profane.
The contrast between these symbols of consumerism and the traditional symbol of the apple reflects on the eternal versus the fleeting.
Kim’s art is a commentary on the human experience and society, inviting the viewer to contemplate the cyclical nature of life and the eternal pursuit of love, connection and possession. Her use of symbolism and imagery is a fresh and fluid take on contemporary art that communicates deep truths about the human experience in a relatable way.
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Ron Mueck, Australian-born, London-based, is an artist and sculptor known for his works made with particular materials that make them absolutely realistic and, at the same time, enigmatic.
His personal exhibitions have toured museums all over the world, in North America, Europe, South America and the Far East and, a few months ago, his first solo show was inaugurated in Italy at the Triennale in Milan, an evolution of the exhibition project held in Paris last summer, conceived by Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in close collaboration with the artist.
Ron Mueck begins his career as a model maker and puppeteer in film and television in the United States and London, but in the mid-1990s he shifts his attention to fine arts. In 1996 he dedicates himself completely to artistic practices, totally abandoning all the commercial work he has done in the past. In 1999 he is appointed associate artist at the National Gallery in London.
Ron Mueck’s work touches on the universal and has profoundly renewed contemporary figurative sculpture. To sculpt his prodigious and realistic characters, always on an astonishing scale, it takes him months, or sometime years.
In a career spanning 25 years, he has produced a corpus of 48 works. At once deeply mysterious and extremely genuine, often imbued with a surreal quality, his art invites us to confront our own relationship with the body and, more broadly, with existence itself.
His sculptures are enormous, hyper-realistic, almost disturbing, and certainly do not leave you indifferent.
Mueck uses resin, fiberglass, silicone and other various materials to construct pieces emphasized by the keen likenesses of human beings. He plays with the scale of his sculptures, often making things a lot bigger or a lot smaller than what they logically should be.
“I never made life-size figures because it never seemed to be interesting. We meet life-size people every day. Altering the scale makes you take notice in a way that you wouldn’t do with something that’s just normal”, affirms the artist.
Mueck often aims to present his characters in key instants of their imagined lives, covering the mysterious moments such as birth and death. He draws upon his own memories, dreams and everyday experiences in order to portray his subjects with extraordinary compassion, injecting a little bit of his own personality into every piece he completes.
The naturalism of his work can be achieved with the astonishing level of detail of his pieces, but the whole hyper realistic approach is weakened by the artist’s calculated play with scale: some figures will fill the entire gallery while others will not hold more than three feet tall.
Mueck’s works command an uncanny ability to amaze all of its viewers – the obsessive surface details are nothing more than a tip of a much larger conceptual mountain that is Ron’s art. Appealing and engaging, these figures reveal our own personal needs to validate our humanity.
Mass (2017), in its monumental scale and ambition, is the centrepiece of the exhibition and represents a milestone in the artist’s career. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia), Mass comprises one hundred giant human skulls piled high and reconfigured by the artist for each venue. The installation offers a physical and psychological experience that captivates visitors and encourages them to reflect on fundamental aspects of human existence. The title provides a glimpse of the work’s diverse interpretations.
In Bed (2005) is a giant depiction of a woman lying in bed, with her head propped up against the pillows. Despite its colossal size, the sculpture looks delicate and intimate. As is always the case in Ron Mueck’s work, the distorted proportions are central to the viewer’s encounter. In this case, the large scale alters the perspective to create a feeling of closeness to a person whose thoughts seem to be elsewhere. In Bed has been part of the Fondation Cartier Collection since 2005.
Woman with Sticks (2009), her back bent under the effort of an unexplained task and her feet firmly anchored to the ground, creates a dynamic posture set against the elegant irregularity of the barely contained sticks. The softness of her skin is scarred by the sharp, dry wood, and the expression on her face seems to indicate concentration on her surroundings. The deliberately small scale gives the sculpture an unsettling strangeness, as if we are looking in on a world that is both physically present but at the same time allegorical. Woman with Sticks has been part of the Fondation Cartier Collection since 2013.
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