Habib Farajabadi | "How Black": Dastan +2

Dastan is pleased to announce the opening of Habib Farajabadi’s solo exhibition “How Black” on October 21, 2016 at Dastan+2. The exhibition will be open for public viewing until November 6. This is Habib Farajabadi’s first solo exhibition at Dastan. His works have been previously featured in eight solo exhibitions, including one at Mottahedan Projects (Dubai, UAE), and five at Homa Art Gallery, along with numerous group shows.

Habib Farajabadi (b. 1982, Shahroud, Iran) is one of the most prolific artists of his generation. As a self-taught artist who has developed his personal style through years of experimentation, his focus on non-figurative art and untiring efforts in his study-like approach are notable features evident in all of his body of work. Describing his practice as “contemplative”, he writes: “non-figurative painting… is still alive and this is because of the painterly interaction involved that is independent both in its content and form.”

Habib Farajabadi’s practice can be described as a continuous study in form, using diverse media and techniques, with an approach concentrated on process and repetition. Shahrouz Nazari, Habib Farajabadi’s longtime gallerist at Homa Art Gallery, describes his work as “against the general dialog”, writing: “…in our art scene, abstraction seems like a gamble, and the appeal of abstract painters is due to their very risk-taking and adventurous spirit…”

“How Black” includes drawings, paintings and sculptures, consists of numerous works, mostly executed in 2016. In this series, the artist has ventured into a radical approach (compared to his previous series) in which the works are deprived of diversity in color. Almost all works are black and white.

The hundreds of “How Black” drawings, all done with the artist’s signature technique of oil pastel on paperboard, show the progression of his studies and the repetitive nature of his practice in artistic creation. In the paintings, despite using mono-print, the technique does not appear as controlled, but rather freely flowing. Habib Farajabadi has used multiple layers of mono-prints along with his personal effects to create a united but free-form surface. The sculptures present themselves as a progression of his three-dimensional pieces from “Unnamable” series, and work as assemblages of found objects, Habib’s drawing techniques, and his extremist penchant for abstraction.

Mottahedan Projects (MP), which displayed a solo exhibition of a number of Habib Farajabadi’s works from his “Rummage” series in 2014, writes: “Farajabadi’s work is rich in a lyricism punctuated by cryptic ‘blank’ spaces, and in so doing, liberating the viewer in its own, poetic manner —precisely the qualities that German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno discerned in Beethoven’s final works, in which ‘still’ is liberated; as never before.”