Dear friends, family, peers, and fellow members of the human race.
My family has been wonderfully busy the past few years working on projects of breath taking brilliance. These coming weeks, they will be let loose on America and available for your viewing and enjoyment. I am very proud to be their son and to tell you about their existence. Below is information about my father's first solo show tomorrow (May 4th) as well as his and my step mother's (Shirin Neshat) film "Women Without Men" set for it NYC theatrical release May 14th. If you find the time to catch either of these
wonderful works I can guarantee you you are in for a treat.
May all this and all other things find you in health, happiness, and love.
live long and don't worry about prospering, you already have,
Behrang "Johnny" Azari
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shirin Neshat's award winning film "Women Without Men" opens in NYC onMay 14th. Please share the links below with your networks and buy tix in advance. Show's will sell out.
Against the tumultuous backdrop of Iran's 1953 CIA-backed coup d'état, the destinies of four women converge in a beautiful orchard garden, where they find independence, solace and companionship.
Advance tickets are available here: http://tinyurl.com/25zjpk7
For more info about the film visit: http://www.indiepixfilms.com/display/WWM-QUAD2
Shirin Neshat will be present for Q/A on Friday May 14th and Sat, May 15th
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SHOJA AZARI
ICONS
OPENING RECEPTION
TUESDAY, MAY 4 6-8PM
EXHIBITION CONTINUES THROUGH MAY 27
AN ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE ACCOMPANIES THE EXHIBITION WITH ESSAYSBY: SAM BARDAOUIL DR. HAMID DABASHI BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO
SHOJA AZARI, ICON #1 2010, VIDEO PORTRAIT, MOTION GRAPHIC ARTIST: NARIMAN
Video work by artist and filmmaker Shoja Azari will be on view at Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller (LTMH) Gallery from May 4 though 27, 2010. SHOJA AZARI: ICONS, the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York City, will feature six new video works, which examine the role of saints and heroes in modern society.
In the early 20th century, coffee house-style painting flourished in Iran. Based on Persian mythology, the large paintings depicted the heat of battle, the afterlife and martyrdom, truth and justice, and the apocalypse. The paintings expressed respect for religious and traditional beliefs and served as a backdrop for entertainment in the coffee houses of Iran as storytellers would act out the epic scenes depicted in the paintings.
Azari has appropriated coffee house painter Mohammad Modabber’s, The Day of Judgment, a painting dense with imagery and symbolism, and turned it into video work projected onto canvas, Coffee House Painting, 2009, infused with images of today’s saints and sinners.
The Icons series, 2010, is comprised of five video works that appropriate popular posters of saints in Iran. Inspired by how Renaissance painters humanized religious figures, Azari seeks to make icons resonate in a new way.
Iranian-born Shoja Azari has lived in New York City since 1983. His films and video installations have been screened and exhibited widely around the world. Most recently, his video work has been seen in solo gallery exhibitions in London; Turin, Italy; and Köln, Germany, and at art fairs including Art Basel, Switzerland, and ARCO, Madrid. Since
1997, he has collaborated with Shrin Neshat on film and video installations including Women Without Men, which won the Silver Lion for best director at the 2009Venice Film Festival. He has also collaborated with Shahram Karimi on video paintings which project video on painted surfaces.
SHOJA AZARI, COFFEE HOUSE PAINTING, 2009. VIDEO PROJECTION ON CANVAS. DIGITAL IMAGING BY NARIMAN
LEILA TAGHINIA-MILANI HELLER GALLERY
Yrs. Truly
Johnny B. Azari