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/