This Too Shall Pass

This Too Shall Pass

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 27. FARHAD MOSHIRI | RODEO COWBOY.

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Lot Details

Description

FARHAD MOSHIRI

b.1963

RODEO COWBOY


signed, titled and dated 2018 on the reverse

embroidery and beads on canvas laid on board 

151 by 171cm.; 59¾ by 67¼in.

The Third Line, Dubai 

Farhad Moshiri (b. 1963, Iran) received his MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 1984 before returning to Iran in 1991.


Moshiri has developed a personal language in which he discusses commonalities in Iranian and Western cultures. Inspired by Pop art, Moshiri over turns both pop culture and highbrow imagery by transforming it into figurative artwork. His pieces are made using everyday objects as well as luxurious materials such as pearls, crystals, sequins, and gold leaf. Although his practice appears as playful and decorative, he offers a critical narrative beyond the shimmering surfaces. He addresses the flaws of contemporary Iran all while toying with its traditional forms and acknowledges the appeal of the western world in addition to its limitations. His use of such materials continues to demonstrate his ability to surpass the confines of pure aestheticism with playful irreverence and layered meaning. In his usual subdued impertinence, Moshiri deploys his mastery of Iranian visual vernacular, as well as an acute awareness of popular culture and art history, to evoke pertinent issues of our times. Through ‘candy’ colours and hybrid materials in paintings and installations, he plays with the codes of modernism while developing a flamboyant iconography.


Solo exhibitions include First Snow, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg (2018); Snow Forest, Galerie Perrotin, New York (2017); Go West, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (2017); My Flower, Hyundai Gallery, Seoul (2014); Shukran, The Third Line, Dubai (2011) and Love is Not Everything, Farjam Foundation, Dubai (2011).


Farhad’s recent group exhibitions include, There Is Fiction In The Space Between, The Third Line, Dubai (2020); Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2017); Heaven and Hell. From Magic Carpets to Drones, Boghossian Foundation–Villa Empain, Brussels (2015); One Way: Peter Marino, Bass Museum, Miami Beach (2014); Safar/Voyage: Contemporary Works by Arab, Iranian and Turkish Artists, Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver (2013); Love Me, Love Me Not: Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its neighbours, The 55th International Art Exhibition (Collateral Event), Venice Biennale, Venice (2013); The World Belongs to You, François Pinault Collection, Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2011); Iran Inside Out, Chelsea Art Museum, New York (2009) and Words Into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East, British Museum, London (2006). Moshiri has also participated in the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (2009) and in the 6th Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah (2003).


His works are housed in the collections of the British Museum, London; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Virginia and François Pinault Collection, Palazzo Grassi, Venice.


Moshiri lives between Tehran and Paris.