The second solo exhibition of Iranian artist Ramtin Zad, titled Resurrection, opened at Gallery Etemad in Dubai on April 30th.
Armed with an artistic style very typical of Iranian art – in the use of bold color and his thick brush-stroked detailing – Zad is now an established 28-year-old painter and sculptor. Preferring to call himself a figurative artist, he has been actively exhibiting his work since 2006 in Tehran, Dubai, Basel, Kuwait, London and New York.
His recent exhibition is a collection of selected new paintings and sculptures, revolving around the focal theme of resurrection. The artist adapted the religious reference to the natural cycle of events in nature, demonstrating the ever-repetitive process of constant decay and revival.
While the subject matter of creation and destruction remains a defining and inseparable law of the very nature of resurrection, they remain a recurrent premise for the artist’s inspiration during the production of the artworks. The resulting mood of the collection further accentuates the truth of nature’s beauty in its constant flux of death and rebirth.
Zad works on small and large-scale paintings and also creates monumental decorative vases that take their inspiration from Persian literature and folklore.
Incorporating a surreal sense of fantasy, and both historical and contemporary symbolism in his work through nature, animals and humans, he renders the subjects he paints a quality of timelessness.
His sculpture titled Kabuki is a cultural narrative inspired from the Kabuki dance-theatrical movement of Japan that largely drew upon the social fabric of the Japanese and now re-told from an Iranian perspective.
“There are a number of symbols within a genre that refer to the routine of human life. From battle scenes, dances, creatures to myths. They are all associated with and speak of our social issues,” Zad said.
Jungle, another one of his exhibited acrylic paintings is a crying explosion of flowers, trees, foliage and skies – a stressful attempt at capturing the essence of the wild.
Zad claims to find nature his closest muse. He believes the element of wilderness is a deeply ingrained feature of natural beauty that he finds both formalistic and erotic, further intending to produce a quality of hallucination in his work.
“Through my paintings, I give my observers the opportunity to enter the labyrinth of my mind. Although the subjects and colors I apply are visually pleasant and eye-catching, they are wild and figuratively tough. I want my observers to relate with my concerns,” he added.
Zad said that just as his artistic process is not a journey of landing at a destination but rather that of revelation, rightly so his plans for future works are unsettled, although he remains intent on becoming the most influential artist in the region.
The exhibition will run until May 24, 2012 at Etemed Gallery, Serkal Avenue, Al Quoz — Dubai.
For more information, visit: http://galleryetemad.com/
Ramtin Zad: Art naturally
Ramtin Zad: Art naturally
Sheikha Al-Mayassa talks cultural patronage at Art Basel Qatar Conversations panel
DOHA: Cultural leaders at the inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar in Doha have discussed how patronage is reshaping art ecosystems, with Qatar’s own long-term cultural vision at the center.
The opening panel, “Leaders of Change: How is patronage shaping new art ecosystems?” brought together Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, chair of Qatar Museums, and Maja Hoffmann, founder and president of the Luma Foundation, in a discussion moderated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London. The talk formed part of the Art Basel Conversations x Qatar Creates Talks program, coinciding with the debut of Art Basel Qatar which runs in Doha until Feb. 8.
Sheikha Al-Thani framed Qatar’s cultural project as a strategic, long-term endeavor anchored in national development. “Qatar has a national vision called 2030 where culture was one of the main pillars for socioeconomic development and human development,” she said. “We have always invested in culture as a means of human development.”
That vision, she explained, underpins the decision to welcome a major international fair like Art Basel to Doha after turning away many previous proposals.
“For the longest time, I can’t tell you how many art fairs came to us wanting to be here, and we never felt it was the right time,” she said. “However, this is an important year for us and we felt, with the surplus of talent and the growing gallery scene we had here, that it was time to bring industry to talent, because that’s how we will spur the economic diversification from hydrocarbon to a knowledge-based society.”
She was also keen to stress that Art Basel Qatar was not conceived as a conventional marketplace.
“This is not your typical art fair … It’s a humane art fair where engagement is more important than transaction, discourse more important than division, and curiosity more important than conviction,” she added.
That ethos extends to the fair’s artistic leadership. Al-Thani described how the decision to have an artist — Wael Shawky — serve as artistic director emerged collaboratively with Art Basel’s team.
“He’s a global artist who’s now become a very local artist, very invested in our local art scene. And really, I think that’s the beauty of partnerships … There is a safe space for us to critique each other, support each other, and really brainstorm all the possibilities … and then come to a consensus of what would make sense for us,” she said.
Collecting art, she added, has long been embedded in Qatari society: “My grandmother is almost 100 years old. She was collecting in the 60s when Qatar was a very poor country. It’s in our DNA … always with this notion of investing in knowledge and human development.”
Today, that impulse translates into comprehensive, multi-disciplinary collections: “We are both collecting historical objects, contemporary objects, modern objects, architecture, archival material, anything that we feel is relevant to us and the evolution of this nation towards a knowledge-based economy.”
Looking ahead, Al-Thani outlined a new cultural triangle in Doha — the National Museum of Qatar, the Museum of Islamic Art and the forthcoming Art Mill Museum — as engines for both economic diversification and intellectual life.
“That ecosystem will enhance the economic growth and diversification, but also the knowledge that’s available, because the diversity in the collections between these three institutions will no doubt inspire young people, amateurs, entrepreneurs to think outside the box and inform their next business,” she said.
The panel closed with a focus on the future of large-scale exhibitions with Rubaiya, Qatar’s new quadrennial, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the 2022 World Cup.
“Every four years in memory of the opening of the World Cup, we will open the quadrennial. This year, the theme is ‘Unruly Waters.’ At the center of the theme is Qatar’s trading route to the Silk Road,” explained Al-Thani.
“It’s important for us to trace our past and claim it and share it to the rest of the world, but also show the connectivity that Qatar had historically and the important role it has been playing in diplomacy.”
