REZA DERAKSHANI

The title EMPTY HOUSE PARTY refers to a series of oil paintings which brings together elements of Iran’s mythology and pictorial world with the abstraction of European-American painting in a very personal pictorial language. Reza Derakshani (b. 1952, Sangsar, Iran) has been working since the early 1980s on the themes of ‘death, wealth and myth’ and is regarded as one of the most influential Iranian artists of our time.

After immigrating to the USA (1983) as a result of the Islamic Revolution, Derakshani’s cosmopolitan identity led him to reflect on aspects of Western abstraction in his work. Abstract Expressionism in particular exerted a major influence on the artist’s work during a stay of several years in New York. There, Derakshani was in close contact with artists such as Francesco Clemente, Shirin Neshat, and Cy Twombly. Through these and many other encounters, Derakshani integrates his examination of Western postmodernism into his paintings and, influenced by the poetry of Persian art, the figures of later Iranian narratives in Iran, as well as by the legends of the early period, he also incorporates elements of classical miniature painting and calligraphy into his work.

As his exhibitions have attracted worldwide attention, his works are already represented in numerous renowned institutional and private collections, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the British Museum, London, and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Most recently, Reza Derakshani presented solo exhibitions at the Kunstsammlung Chemnitz and the State Russian Museum St. Petersburg in 2016.

The exhibition opens on Friday, May 17^th, 7 p.m., and will run until June 29^th. It is the artist’s second solo exhibition in the gallery.