Special Interview with
REZA PANAHI
Iranian Art
Reza Panahi, Born in 1981, a painter, lives and works in Tehran, Iran. Exhibits his work mostly in Maryam Fasihi Harandi Gallery, Tehran. Graduated with honor from Tehran University, Art Diploma. Exhibited in Tehran museum for contemporary art, April 2001 and Participated in the International Kunstmesse exhibition in München 2015. In his resume you can find the Iranian Prize for plastic arts, more than 20 group exhibitions around the work and 8 solo exhibitions in Iran, Spain and Germany.
We were able to have a short Interview with the excellent artist, and in spite of the “gray political cloud” on our both heads, we were able to exhibit his work in the Israeli Art Magazine.
Thank you Reza for the Interview, Let’s talk about your interesting art, which is full of details and very colorful. Is there a symbolic meaning in your art?
Thank you for the Interview, Im very honored, I see myself as a man of peace and friendships, and art is a very powerful tool for achieving peaceful life.
As i see it, Drawing & painting is a language; a way of communication in the world of signs, and every visual sign having a particular meaning and function, in addition to the aesthetic values, possess a unique atmosphere that stems from the artist’s technique and into the performance.
The visual world I create, shows the metamorphosis of deconstruction and blending together of signs. The results have caused my technique to be a tool as an instrument, Produce a diversity of forms in the method’s of depiction.
Such forms in my work, are everywhere, ranging from the objective to the subjective, my compositions are rooted in Persian miniature and meant expressing act.
In that element and signs, that are painted in juxtaposition to each other. There is no perspective for the eyes to ultimately be led to a single focal point; In the Iranian painting, there is an equal amount of images in all four corners of the frame without any signs of light & shadow.
For instance, there is no night. Light is daylight where people are holding torches or lamps and the viewer has to guess whether it’s nighttime, and that fantasy of the mind is rooted in a philosophical establishment that I have tried to blend in with the basic of my work.
Fluidity of form and execution is rooted in fluidity of mind, and leads to a method of depictions that is contradictory and inconsistent in terms of views, this is the main components of postmodernism. With that, I tried to represent the code of language.
The presence of suspense on the overall message, the use of code language stems from life in a land whose conflicted and imperfect, Repressive reality has turned me away. From the cruel societal realities toward isolation. My Art works are structural protesting, expressed as imaginary images.
In art we should understand that painting is a medium. For instance, the explicit etchings of the tragedies of war.
In addition to possessing artistic value, the art served as a media network to inform Europe about what went on in Syria for example, The emergence of high-speed mass media gave me the idea to change the News-bearing role in my artwork to portray a sense of chaos & disarray in an inward fashion, in line with the result of my work.
I should point out that painting exhibit the fundamental characteristic of the land where it’s created; in Iran, paintings have always portrayed a magical, decorative nature and illusions. And of course I intend to keep that characteristic in my art .
What is the creating process? How does the process looks like?
Well, First of all, I’m working many hours each day, making several projects in a day, sometimes simultaneously in a day: drawing. Painting. Making sketches in my sketch book.
The process… I do believe my soul is moving my hand on the paper or canvas…
Professionally, what’s your goal?
My dream is to make a book of animation. In this book, the drawing and paintings will have the motion on the paper.
Can you choose one artwork that influenced you and you love the most?
I love all the artworks by Caravaggio
Especially David & Goliath.
Thank you, dear Reza, we wish you all the best and many more exhibitions around the world. Maybe and hopefully we will visit your exhibition in Israel…one day.
