"The Universal Pink": Untitled Art, Miami Beach 2017

Dastan is pleased to announce its participation in Untitled, Art Miami Beach 2017. This is Dastan's second participation in Untitled, Art. Previously, the gallery took a solo presentation of works by Iman Raad to Untitled, Art San Francisco 2017 (January).

For Untitled Miami Beach 2017, Dastan’s Basement will present a curated booth titled “The Universal Pink” consisting of works by Sam Samiee*, Farrokh Mahdavi** and Sadra Bani-Asadi***. The design and set-up of the booth is commissioned to artist/curator Sam Samiee. The presentation will include paintings by Farrokh Mahdavi, videos as well as paintings by Sadra Bani-Asadi, and paintings, drawings, 3D chromatic sculptures as well as iPad drawings by Sam Samiee.

The curated booth of Dastan's Basement, 'A Universal Pink', refers to a recognition of the color pink that reveals itself as a universal color of the flesh of human beings. Sam Samiee has employed a direct print technique as well as iPad prints, to contextualize works by Farrokh Mahdavi and Sadra Bani Asadi. Farrokh Mahdavi throughout his distinct painting practice has explored the bodily relation of paint, the pink color and the affective forms which they contain with his daring compositions and experimental paint-handling. Sadra Bani Asadi, the youngest member of the group, navigates gazes at the imagery of his continuous quest for uncanny in the familiar. In '37 years after Phillip Guston' Samiee recalls the pink that has been employed most iconically in the critical paintings of Phillip Guston, and in his non-Christian 'Crucifixion' looks at the event of Crucifixion as a symbolic moment rather than a historic fact.

The artworks will be symmetrically installed in the booth with recurring wallpapers that are directly executed on the walls by Samiee. The wall papers as well as iPad drawings are used in order to provide visual frames and backgrounds for the works on the walls creating the shape of a modern altar. At first the viewer encounters a space which could resemble the Islamic architecture, but the new harmony of its contrasting colors distinguish the setup from both Western and Islamic interiors.

The floor with two couches, two sculptures (all four designed and painted by Samiee) and a stand for Bani-Asadi’s video art, extend the exhibition space into the interior of the booth and allows the viewers to sit within the artworks of the booth for a comforting moment. It is then that they have access to watch Bani-Asadi’s video and hear the music and sound assemblage, which syncs in and out of the video. Therefore, the space of the booth, despite its explosive imagery, holds a distinct rhythm between frames, shapes and music forms that all together hold simultaneously multiple time experiences.

The rhythm and the the repetition of the wallpapers and iPad drawings, together with the related yet individual artworks on view, invites the viewer to a contemplation on experience of pain, pleasure, and the uncanny humor embedded within the universality of pink.

* Sam Samiee (b. 1988, Tehran, Iran) is the winner of the Dutch Royal Painting Prize and currently lives both in Amsterdam and Tehran. He has curated multiple group painting exhibitions, including the works of other artists with similar sensibilities and concerns as himself throughout Europe, among which is his Baroque show at Fons Welters Gallery and his final Rijksakademie presentation, both of which have been featured extensively. The latest of these group exhibitions has been A Camp at Dastan's Basement.

** Farrokh Mahdavi’s (b. 1970, Tehran, Iran) work has been presented at the Iranian Pavilion in Venice Biennale. He is amongst the cutting edge painters of his generation in Iran, with his work being shown in over thirty exhibitions in Iran and abroad.

*** Sadra Bani-Asadi (b. 1991, Tehran, Iran) is one of the most creative talents of the new wave of Iranian artists working on visual art, music, video, but most importantly storytelling. Bani Asadi and Samiee, both of the same generation of Iranian artists, have had a long professional relationship at their studios and share dialogs both in technique and expression. A Camp and A Universal Pink is the fruition of their long-run collaboration.

UNTITLED, Miami Beach 2017 will take place on "the beach at Ocean Drive and 12th Street", "December 6 — 10, 2017".

"Press & VIP Preview":

December 5, 2017: 1:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Open To Public:

December 6, 7, 8 & 9: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
December 10: 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Untitled will offer a complimentary shuttle service operating between Untitled, Miami Beach (at Ocean Drive & 12th) and The Miami Beach Convention centre, at The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater, 1700 Washington Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139.

Shuttles will run from 11:00 AM to 6:00PM