Mehrdad Pournazarali | "Palimpsest; Some Untitled Drawings": Dastan's Basement
Dastan is pleased to announce Mehrdad Pournazarli's solo exhibition "Palimpsest; Some Untitled Drawings" at Dastan's Basement. The exhibition will open for public viewing on November 8, 2019, and will continue through November 22, 2019.
Mehrdad Pournazarali (b. 1980, Rasht, Iran) is a Tehran-based artist. He has received his BFA from Zahedan University and his MFA from Univesity of Tehran.
"Palimpsest; Some Untitled Drawings" is Mehrdad Pournazarali's third exhibition at Dastan's Basement. His previous shows with Dastan's Basement were "Simple Scale; Wet into Wet" (2014) and "Tablet; 2014-2016" (2016).
Mehrdad Pournazarali was in residence at the International City of Arts (Cité internationale des arts) through the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran in 2017.
The current exhibition is a solo presentation of Pournazarali's latest works, a selection of monotypes which are a result of his three-year study and appreciation towards the ancient history of art.
About this exhibition, Mehrdad Pournazarali states: "I have always been amazed by the ancient forms of art, cave paintings, sculptures, and old busts, handicrafts from different lands, African masks, long-standing and historical buildings, documentaries and photographs from the life of tribes from all around the globe and anything hinting to roots of art and civilization of humankind.
I'm amazed, for I believe these works are everlasting, credible and global evidence to man's most authentic art.
There is no intentional or crude persistent will to make these works look authentic or somehow create an identity for them. They owe their beauty to their vulnerability and their endurance of time which in turn has inflicted damage upon them or has broken them or faded their color or even transformed them. These works are always perfect for the mere fact of looking imperfect.
My desire to go back in time has not been an intriguing visual trick to authenticate identify my drawings but it is also the foundation of the fascination I've been subconsciously following in my works and has managed to surface every once in a while.
In the process of drawings, from time to time lines of the sketch would vary or through simply moving of papers, the initial look of the sketch would change and old lines give way to new lines.
In the end, what was left on the paper looked like obliterated and nebulous lines on a plate, looking vague and washed out and yet giving life to a new plate."