Negin Sholevar | ‏"Laced" : Dastan:Outside x 8Cube

Dastan Outside Projects, in collaboration with 8Cube, is pleased to announce Negin Sholevar's solo exhibition, "Laced" at Ava Platt. The exhibition will be on view from September 18 through October 9, 2026.
In this new body of work, Negin Sholevar moves away from the dark and somber atmosphere of her earlier paintings, presenting a markedly different visual narrative. Executed in acrylic on canvas, these works replace enclosed, turbulent spaces with large, meticulously detailed banquet tables: spreads overflowing with sweets, tiered cakes, collapsing swathes of cream, and candlesticks embedded in the cakes themselves. Yet this sugary appearance does not necessarily suggest a cheerful or uncomplicated world. Beneath these scenes lie layers of tension, suspense, and more complex concerns. In this series, the artist reflects on her relationship with the viewer and attempts to recast the difficult and darker concerns of her previous work in a new, seemingly gentler form. According to Sholevar, this shift emerged from a sense that the heaviness and bleakness of her earlier paintings could at times stand in the way of a more immediate encounter between viewer and work. By opening up her palette and drawing on more seductive visual elements, she has sought a new way to articulate the same internal preoccupations and layered ideas; a visual language that remains alluring while retaining its sharper edges. Color assumes a striking presence throughout the series, though it remains carefully controlled and restrained. The artificial gleam of confectionery, dripping cream, and the precarious balance of these elaborate arrangements all contribute to a space poised between pleasure and anxiety, beauty and instability. The series continues Sholevar's exploration of metaphor as a means of addressing complex ideas: a visual narrative of "sweetening bitterness," in which the apparent splendor of the feast only heightens the tension concealed beneath its surface.
Negin Sholevar (b. 1998, Tehran) studied genetics. Drawing on her scientific background and analytical approach, she creates metaphorical, multilayered spaces in her paintings. Her work is driven by tensions between pleasure and anxiety, attraction and repulsion, using visual language rather than direct narrative to engage with psychological and cultural ideas. She has participated in several group exhibitions, including "You Are in Your Head" (2023, Soo Gallery) and "Re-reading" (2021, Vaali Gallery).