AZAD ART GALLERY

Rosita Sharafjahan and Mohsen Nabizadeh opened the Azad Art Gallery at its present location in Tehran in the Fall of 1999. The new relative official leniency toward the national art world at the time and the limited number of Tehran galleries inspired them to create an experimental space where emergent artists could exhibit their progressive artwork during a critical era and to take advantage of the overall increase in multi-media in the art communities. The gallery has become increasingly determined to continue to provide a fresh space for young artists to enter the art world and exhibit their new ideas and art. This small gallery situated on a small tree filled square in the center of Tehran has been accessible and available for university students and the youth in general. Continuing its uninterrupted 20 year existence, the gallery has very soon created a more appropriate space for critique, video projection, performance art and individual and group multi-media exhibitions. Still, the main goal of the gallery will now be to focus on new experiences on the exhibiting stage.

“Untitled” is a collection of still-lifes taken from the fringes of contemporary life. These are heads without arms or legs that stare at the silence of cold walls. An ineffectiveness in my blank stares that has for years created roles in my mind’s small room along with one signature for an unwritten contract for each person along with a face to validate the agreement. (Each human being validates a contract with their face….).