SETAREH is delighted to announce the second solo exhibition with New York based Iranian artist Soraya Sharghi under the title Their scream went to the heavens at SETAREH Düsseldorf.

Soraya Sharghi reinvents and rediscovers an ancient visual imaginary and medium of communicating knowledge. Sharghi transforms, via means of colour and symbolism, elements of fable and mythology into a contemporary discourse.

The artist's authenticity creates a new visual language in which hybrids with human and animal features, mostly female, transcend in exuberant compositions. Deriving but expanding the concept of the nymphs, it links and breaks the connections to their deity. A parallelism between old and new times, that mirrors the empowerment on womankind. Soraya Sharghi's pictorial world reflects on the hardship of the past and the development of the present power dynamics, which will shape the future.

Sharghi uses the 'superflat' technique, as the tradition of artists like Andy Warhol or Takashi Murakami, and invites the viewer to a world of imagination, where the characters are depicted in metaphorical and parallel realities to the ones surrounding society. Soraya Sharghi and her silk-screen acrylic paintings, have countless layers of depth in her elaborated compositions, accompanied by an equivalent profundity of levels of understanding.

Soraya Sharghi's unique paintings immerse the viewer into a universe where ancient cultural ideas contain transformation, recovery, development and manifestation of something greater. Seemingly originating from another world, it reveals a contemporary mindset, traversing the sphere of flora, fauna and mythos, that presents a fresh awareness on the power of the discourse, the language and the collective intelligence linked to them.

Making use of these layers, the artist mixes textured colour segments, introducing air brushing technique in these new series of paintings, that connect as energetic fields. The appearing calmness of forest and jungle views in which mystical creatures, like nymphs, interact with the flora and fauna is broken by a bold palette that contrasts with the apparent idyllic setting. These kaleidoscopic fragments emanate a powerful vitality that originates at the same time from within the beings and the contextual elements surrounding them. Striking textures and shades, layered meticulously, burst out fiercely like a scream.

Strength is projected from the compositions and the depicted characters alike in Soraya Sharghi's paintings. As the gaze focuses on them, the viewer can observe that some of the beings struggle, fight or confront threats. Most of the characters are female, liberated, exposing their skin, unapologetic. Sharghi fuses the allegory of reinvented mythology, fable and the use of colour in a vindication on gender stereotypes as well as the multitude of facets in the cultural expressions from minorities.

The new series of paintings presented in Their Scream went to the Heavens showcase an oscillation between harmony and chaos. An anticipation of the cultural changes that are taking place, being demanded with growing awareness by the collectives who raise their voices for environmental and human rights. Drawing from the narratives of fable, the call out is so loud, so unavoidable and impossible to ignore, that everyone can hear it up to the Heavens.

Press release courtesy SETAREH.