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Passions Evoked and the Summer Show
The works presented were by: Siah Armajani, Monir
Farmanfarmian, Hengameh Fouladvand, Nahid Hagigat and
Nicky Nodjoumi The opening reception for "Passions
Evoked", on Sat. evening , April 24th, the first
exhibit organized by CIMA (Center for Iranian Modern
Arts), was an extraordinarily successful event,
evident by the overwhelming number of supporters and enthusiasts
of modern Iranian art that flocked to the reception.
The viewers leisurely mingled and viewed the art work
hanging all around them on every wall, contributing to
lively conversation and celebration of Iranian American
arts. Directors from Grey Art Center and New York University,
curators from Museum of Modern Arts, Brooklyn Museum,
Macy Gallery at Columbia University , Gallery Pierogi
2000, Lindenberg Gallery, many Iranian filmakers , scholors
and critics visited the show; as well as friends of the
artists, including Shirin Neshat the prominent Iranian
artist who has won the Venice Biennial prize for 1999,
and prominent American painter Frank Stella.
The works of art displayed were quite different from each
other, in terms of the materials the artists chose to
work with, (everything from paint to paper). The statements
the artists were conveying also had quite a variation,
ranging from political satire to works of refined traditional
rendering with a contemporary hint. The exhibited artists,
were at hand to talk with the viewers and offer the occassional
insight into a piece of work. The loft space at 24 E.20th
St. became more and more packed and seemed to never stop
doing so as the hours went by.
With "Passions Evoked", CIMA has successfully
begun its mission of exposing Iranian-American artists
to a large viewing public and is exceedingly making
us aware of a significant modern world of creativity
unknown to most of us.
The next opportunuty to view contemporary Iranian-American
artists was at CIMA's "Summer Show". The turnout
was over 400 people and needless to say the exhibit was
lively and the crowd high spirited. Now with the second
major CIMA event successfully realized, CIMA is seemingly
establishing itself as a hip place to see cutting-edge contemporary
Iranian art. Twelve Iranian artists including Assurbanipal
Babilla, Ardeshir Mohassess, Behrouz Nournia, Hadieh Shafie,
Hadi Hazavei, Sudabeh Sharafshahi, Marjan Karim ,and Naser
Vaziri were exhibited at the summer show, each showing anywhere
from one to three of their works and similar to the first
exhibit, "Passions Evoked", quite a few works
were purchased. Finally, the opportunity is here for us
to embrace contemporary Iranian artists and as the
first two CIMA events showed, we the public are ready to
do so enthusiastically.
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