ARTISTS

Sam Nikmaram

M.Smart

Parham Peyvandi

For ASIA NOW 2022, SARAI Gallery would like to propose a group presentation by Iranian artists Parham Peyvandi (b. 1989), M. Smart (b. 1998, Iran), and Sam Nikmaram (b. 1991, Iran). These three artists belong to the younger generation of highly promising Iranian artists who use an increasingly playful, eclectic, and global formal vocabulary to capture their complex and multilayered existence in a fast-paced world. The unifying aspect of their works is how each artist reflects his sensitivity towards the personal, social, historical, or environmental context they come from.

Parham Peyvandi’s unique monochrome linocut prints tell various stories from the Persian epic “Shahnameh” through an arabesque of curving lines and forms, while his paintings imagine an impossible coexistence between natural and man-made.

Sam Nikmaram creates isometric spaces and stylized sculptures. His creatures similarly share a mythological aura.

Nikmaram’s concern for our living environment is reflected in both his choice of material – his sculptures are often made out of papier-mâché and disposable objects – and his isometric works on paper composed of green and grey environments.

M. Smart’s striking paintings, on the other hand, show cartoonish characters – often including self-portraits of his – against brightly colored, psychedelic backgrounds channel the life-world of individuals who live in a society driven by paradoxical values: regional versus international, indoctrination versus liberalism, connected yet isolated.