IRANSHAHR ART GALLERY

Iranshahr Art Gallery was inaugurated in the spring 2016 in a dynamic 360 square meter space in an active area of downtown Tehran. Since 2009, the gallery had been operating under the name Art Lounge Projects, hosting a number of artistic events including book launches, performances and group exhibitions. Throughout, we have sustained a vision to bring art to the heart of people’s everyday life.

Iranshahr’s program is articulated around the discovery of new talent in contemporary art, the promotion of the gallery’s mid-career artists, and the organisation of retrospective exhibitions of works by established artists. Along with monthly shows, Iranshahr is host to artist book launches, panel talks and performances. Iranshahr Art Gallery is not limited to its walls. We also perform various activities in the framework of national and international projects. One such project is Surface, a unique public platform and a first in Iran where visual artists are gathered to stay and work in a multi-featured residence and engage actively with the public.

Iranshahr Gallery benefits from the collaboration of a team of researchers, critics and curators in the field of Iranian visual arts. These experts assist the gallery in providing consultation to artists and preparing reviews, critique and written materials to enhance the artistic and theoretical quality of the shows.

Paintings by Davood Zandian

Scenes of old cafes, friendly gatherings, lamps, fruit trees, cats, and people who stare at us from within the frame of the paintings, recount the story of the sunny days of lasting friendships and warm hearts, talks and Intimate conversations, celebrations, and hopes and aspirations that whether survived of vanished, never became as passionate as those days. Davood Zandian’s painting style is in step with a global mode of contemporary painting: expressiveness in design and colour, narrative attitude, a rejection of traditional standards of composition and design, juxtaposition of various picture planes and perspectives, and a refusal of idealizing the image. These are maintained through various styles and methods he experienced throughout his career, including a background in examining coffee-house painting, Safavid miniature, Russian realist painting, Odd Nerdrum’s apocalyptic scenes, and the artist’s experience of filmmaking (…).