Andisheh Avini
24 Sep - 31 Oct 2015
© Andisheh Avini
Untitled , 2015
Wood, marquetry and minerals
12 1/2 x 12 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches 31.8 x 31.8 cm
Untitled , 2015
Wood, marquetry and minerals
12 1/2 x 12 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches 31.8 x 31.8 cm
ANDISHEH AVINI
24 September – 31 October 2015
Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Andisheh Avini, the artist’s second solo show at the gallery. The exhibition will take place at the gallery’s Upper East Side location at 118 East 64th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, from September 24 through October 31, 2015.
Andisheh Avini’s practice thrives on the juxtaposition of patterns, materials and East/West influences, employing the ensuing collisions to challenge the symbolic implication of imagery and to explore the visual experience of memory. For this exhibition, Avini will utilize the townhouse’s unique architecture to expand upon his particular interest in the domestic realm, re-staging and challenging his visual memories with compelling tableaux vivants that allude to the past while remaining firmly rooted in the present. As a follow-up to his 2014 solo show at the gallery’s Chelsea location (where he installed carpet to evoke the feeling of a child observing the outside world from the safety of home), here he will broaden this installation aspect of his practice and blur the lines between exhibition and living space.
Throughout the townhouse’s three floors, Avini will arrange examples of his serial practice into physical installations showcasing the extent of the artist’s recent explorations in pattern, appropriation and medium. Avini’s use of marquetry or Khatam – a traditional Iranian craft of inlaid wood – has developed to encompass new, seemingly disparate sculptural forms: organic, rock-like objects (sometimes including the crystalline protrusions of actual minerals) and abstract, mask-like objects that evoke ancient armor or shamanistic talismans. Here, the marquetry's decorative symmetry coexists with the shapes' opposing asymmetry, creating a plurality of visual planes. Similarly, Avini’s paintings of peacock feathers on mother-of-pearl explore the dichotomy between these two naturally occurring patterns. A new series of sculptures exemplifies the mechanism of subversive play at the core of Avini's practice. With these, Avini combines geometric forms rendered in lacquered surfaces or marquetry, creating hybrid Modernist assemblages that are neither painting nor sculpture.
Avini’s installation of these works within the space will activate the building's unique domestic character via personal recollections of the artist’s past environs. Haft-Sin*, a Persian New Year table setting (in this case dislocated in time) replete with the characteristic flourishes that impressed him as a child, will exist alongside the works this aesthetic inspired. Similarly, a wall-drawing on the top floor will evoke the patterned wallpaper of his childhood home, providing the backdrop for the artist’s own carpet paintings – flowing jewel tones reminiscent of Persian prayer rugs applied to standard pile carpets with an Abstract Expressionist gesture. Together, these installations and pairings will cloud the division between art, decoration and architecture, prompting the viewer to reconsider the fluidity of these definitions.
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Andisheh Avini was born in 1974 in New York. Educated at Hunter College in New York, he has shown consistently in solo and group exhibitions since 2002, including locations in New York, Berlin, Los Angeles, Basel, Madrid and Paris. He currently lives and works in New York.
24 September – 31 October 2015
Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Andisheh Avini, the artist’s second solo show at the gallery. The exhibition will take place at the gallery’s Upper East Side location at 118 East 64th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, from September 24 through October 31, 2015.
Andisheh Avini’s practice thrives on the juxtaposition of patterns, materials and East/West influences, employing the ensuing collisions to challenge the symbolic implication of imagery and to explore the visual experience of memory. For this exhibition, Avini will utilize the townhouse’s unique architecture to expand upon his particular interest in the domestic realm, re-staging and challenging his visual memories with compelling tableaux vivants that allude to the past while remaining firmly rooted in the present. As a follow-up to his 2014 solo show at the gallery’s Chelsea location (where he installed carpet to evoke the feeling of a child observing the outside world from the safety of home), here he will broaden this installation aspect of his practice and blur the lines between exhibition and living space.
Throughout the townhouse’s three floors, Avini will arrange examples of his serial practice into physical installations showcasing the extent of the artist’s recent explorations in pattern, appropriation and medium. Avini’s use of marquetry or Khatam – a traditional Iranian craft of inlaid wood – has developed to encompass new, seemingly disparate sculptural forms: organic, rock-like objects (sometimes including the crystalline protrusions of actual minerals) and abstract, mask-like objects that evoke ancient armor or shamanistic talismans. Here, the marquetry's decorative symmetry coexists with the shapes' opposing asymmetry, creating a plurality of visual planes. Similarly, Avini’s paintings of peacock feathers on mother-of-pearl explore the dichotomy between these two naturally occurring patterns. A new series of sculptures exemplifies the mechanism of subversive play at the core of Avini's practice. With these, Avini combines geometric forms rendered in lacquered surfaces or marquetry, creating hybrid Modernist assemblages that are neither painting nor sculpture.
Avini’s installation of these works within the space will activate the building's unique domestic character via personal recollections of the artist’s past environs. Haft-Sin*, a Persian New Year table setting (in this case dislocated in time) replete with the characteristic flourishes that impressed him as a child, will exist alongside the works this aesthetic inspired. Similarly, a wall-drawing on the top floor will evoke the patterned wallpaper of his childhood home, providing the backdrop for the artist’s own carpet paintings – flowing jewel tones reminiscent of Persian prayer rugs applied to standard pile carpets with an Abstract Expressionist gesture. Together, these installations and pairings will cloud the division between art, decoration and architecture, prompting the viewer to reconsider the fluidity of these definitions.
-
Andisheh Avini was born in 1974 in New York. Educated at Hunter College in New York, he has shown consistently in solo and group exhibitions since 2002, including locations in New York, Berlin, Los Angeles, Basel, Madrid and Paris. He currently lives and works in New York.