A Group Exhibition
Young Iranian Artists

Jaleh Akbari

Sepideh Behrouzian

Shila Jalilpiran

Samaneh Motallebi

Alireza Nekouei

Parham Peyvandi

Roya Rajaie

Ali Shayesteh

One of Assar Art Gallery’s missions has always been to introduce and support young artists, although this has not always been defined within the gallery’s yearly framework of programs.  Meeting the artists in their ateliers, buying their works from their representing galleries and introducing them to collectors have been our ways of reaching this goal throughout the years. This time however, through inviting young artists, we decided to connect with them directly and to organise an exhibition of their works based on the gallery’s visual criteria.  But the selection process and the existing realities changed our direction and what we had in mind gave way to what actually took place at last.

Our goal by planning this Artist Call was to meet active artists within the age range of 25 to 35, also, to meet fresh new voices and to organise an exhibition of works by a group of selected artists, but the data received during the process were far from what was initially expected. Therefore, we decided to use different criteria for organising this exhibition.

This exhibition is not about introducing exceptional artists although the works of artists presented in this show each have unique characteristics. Also, by putting these artists together this exhibition does not aim to convey a socio-cultural message; instead, it aims to present a selection of different viewpoints and variety of techniques. This exhibition consists of works by eight painters from all around Iran within the mentioned age range that beside what they generationally share in common, they share only one other point and that is the progression they follow through their visual language.

In addition, the exhibition on display presents part of the artistic movement taking shape in our contemporary society with this difference that non of the selected artists have chosen a social or political topic as their subject (unlike most of the participants) nor have they used their media as a tool to evacuate personal dilemmas, or to protest their personal or social issues. In fact, what has been paid attention to in this exhibition is the personal world and individualistic approach of each selected artist.

In selecting the works of these artists, different periods of their works have been considered. This means that a painting with high visual standards has not sufficed in our final decision otherwise we would have been able to present a large number of works in this show.  Instead, we have paid attention to the creative process, continuity in the intellectual development and the methods of representation of each artist. 

In the judging process, beside gallery directors Omid Tehrani and Maryam Majd, Alireza Adambakan, and Pooya Aryanpour both painters and educators have been present. The process was long and difficult; in the first round more than half of the total 538 entries did not make it to the second round. In the second round, nearly 170 artists were selected for the judges to pay closer attention to. In the third round each of the four judges chose between one to thirty artists and in the end 25 artists were selected all together for atelier visits and for their works to be examined from closed angel. At this stage, judges visited artists’ ateliers and in the end eight artists were selected for this group exhibition.

The existing exhibition is a look at our present time with a vision towards the future.