Firouz FarmanFarmaian "Naturescape"
On the occasion of his first Washington DC solo exhibition, “Naturescape”, Farman-Farmaian will show 15 works on paper and recycled cardboard presenting his Blueberry series, which is the central segment of his Naturescape project. Presented alongside a video installation, the exhibition illustrates the origin of his Abstract Organic phase (2015-2018), the result of his intensifying connection to the natural world..
Born in Teheran in 1973, Firouz Farman-Farmaian is a contemporary Persian artist. After the Islamic Revolution, he fled to Paris where he studied architecture and visual arts. During this period, he started working with various media, including paint, print, sculpture, film and music. shown at the Marrakech museum and various art centers throughout Spain.
Important subjects in Farman Farmaian’s work are identity, nature, architectonics and the interplay between realism and abstraction. History and memory are featured prominently in the work of Tehran-born artist Firouz, whose lifetime of living in exile in Paris, France profoundly influenced both his creative practice and individual character. "It is circumstance that ultimately shapes lives," says the artist, whose work seeks to actively engage in a dialogue with the past. As such, his compositions possess a vivacious and spontaneous energy, as well as a deeply symbolic quality, which speaks to a multiplicity of currents in politics, art and philosophy.
Rooted in Persian lore, and focused on themes of nature, architectonics and the interplay between realism and abstraction, Farman-Farmaian's diverse body of work is united by common motifs of movement and texture. The raw and visceral emotion of his pieces is tempered by their material properties, which are strongly rooted in a resolute emphasis on craftsmanship. Each work is the result of careful contemplation of the techniques and tools that will achieve a singular aesthetic and emotional intention. These in turn are deftly combined to create a unique visual rhythm across a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, film and music.
Farman-Farmaian currently has his studio and artist-run gallery in Marbella, Spain. He has had exhibitions and has created installations and performances, shown internationally in galleries and institutions worldwide.
Artist Statement
“The natural world has from the origins been central to my approach of artistic practice. I have from childhood developed a meditative/contemplative relation to the elements, that I have later sought to translate with paint, sculpture or installations. Nature has always been my true experimental space.
Theneon, the Naturescape project has had a pivotal role. At that crossroad, I spent the summer of 2015 in retreat in my wife’s Finnish cabin. The dense glacier-era geology, the richness of the underwood, the radiant luminescence of Nordic skies all came together to incite a new creative dynamic.
The project grew to present itself as a multi-platform experiment taking its roots in the paper studies I developed in Finland. I studied and reworked my approach to painting as my connection to the natural world progressively intensified. This in fine allowed me to operate a transition from an architectonic based abstraction to an organic one. In this instance, I liberated my line and opened the way to the creation of a new visual vocabulary.”