Group Presentation | "Trace": +2 [Deh-Vanak]

+2 proudly presents “Trace” a group exhibition featuring works by renowned artists Reza Lavassani (b. 1962), Vahid Hakim (b. 1969), Ghazaleh Hedayat (b. 1979), and Razieh Sedighian (b. 1986) alongside works by Nasser Javaherpour (b. 1953). The show will be on view from August 16 to September 6, 2024, in +2’s Deh-Vanak Venue. 

This exhibition is curated by Mona Zehtabchi and in collaboration with Maryam Majd, O Gallery, and Emkan Gallery. The exhibition was formed with the help of Hamidreza Qelichkhani, Fereydoun Ave, and Amir Morteza Besharat.

Artists in “Trace” willingly gave up art-making tools, and picked up needles, blades, and flames or even faced the paper barehanded. It’s a heroic demonstration of power. Reza Lavassani pokes needles onto paper making a colorless pattern, only visible due to the lack of paper. Razieh Sedighian applies the same technique to rice paper. Vahid Hakim creates his works by burning the paper, and Ghazaleh Hedayat by scratching c-prints. All these artworks are placed within the context of a visual tradition of “Nail Art” from the Qajar era or works using the Qatta’ee technique that involves drawing without the use of pen and ink. The works of Nasser Javaherpour, one of the few calligraphy masters still practicing this nail technique, are placed in this category.

These muted artworks speak of many contexts, one is in which these works were created, where the artist is castrated enough to revert to the parts where some power still resides; the surface. If drawings and paintings happen at the encounter of a markable surface and a mark-making tool (marker), in these works their focus shifts from controlling the tool to the possibilities of the surface.