Image courtesy of The Third Line
Her work has been housed everywhere from the Guggenheim to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and now Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s latest pieces are coming to the UAE. A solo exhibition of the Iranian artist’s most recent body of work is opening this week at The Third Line, an art gallery located at Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue.
“The Breeze at Dawn Has Secrets to Tell You” brings together mixed-media installations from the Tehran-based creative, who has been crafting pieces for almost six decades. Farmanfarmaian’s latest work experiments with kinetic art for the first time in her distinguished career, featuring painted plexiglass installations that can oscillate in the wind. The exhibition, which launches on September 24 and will remain open until November 3, also contains signature techniques, such as reverse glass painting and mirror mosaics, for which Farmanfarmaian is renowned.
Monir Farmanfarmaian with disco balls at the salon of her home, Tehran, 1977
The artist, who attended the Fine Arts College of Tehran and Parsons School of Design, draws inspiration from Islamic cosmology and mathematics in her work, with geometric silhouettes a stalwart of her pieces. Farmanfarmaian, who has worked alongside Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol in her illustrious career, specializes in wall panels and free-standing pieces that play with texture, light, and reflection, with her latest no exception.
Among the pieces on display at The Third Line include new iterations of her famed 1970s Mirror Ball works—spherical, mirrored sculptures inspired by the sight of children playing football in the streets of Tehran. Alongside her works, The Third Line will also screen Monir, a documentary directed by Bahman Kiarostami that explores the artist’s life, work, and rise to success.
Image courtesy of The Third Line
The Dubai gallery will also be showcasing works by Iranian artist Nima Nabavi in his debut solo show. “1, 2, 3″ will run until November 3, and features intricate geometries in a three-part series. “There was a feeling of scratching at the surface of the underpinnings of natural phenomena, getting a fraction of a glimpse of the mechanics that run the universe,” says Nabavi of his works. “It felt less like creating art, and more like unearthing secrets.”
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