Shahrzad Changalvaee,
“Motherland” # 4, 2010
"A few decades ago not many of us would have dared to imagine the 20th century closing with the universal recognition of contemporary Asian art.
Western institutional and art historical interests had usually consigned the arts of Asia and the Middle East as great moments of antique interest, as though contemporaneous expression was what the West did.
The 13 artists represented in this exhibition work across media with which we are familiar. They are engaged locally and speak to us with a visual language which is universal. The subject matter might be specific but we see it through the lens of individualism. There’s a poetic transcendence in perpetual play, often quietly witty, but never gratuitously flippant.
This is an important exhibition and we are honoured that galleries and artists responded with great enthusiasm to participate. The Middle East has been subject to typecasting, often suggesting that cultures are somehow mass-subservient: recent events disprove that. And as this exhibition reveals, the individual’s expression over notions of a doctrinaire collectivism are clearly manifest." - Doug Hall AM
| DATE: | 5 July 2012 - 4 August 2012 | |
| VENUE: | New Albion Gallery 55 Oxford Street (Cnr. Pelican), Surry Hills, NSW |