In Her Sweetest, Saddest Plight

Dastan Gallery
Frieze Viewing Room, New York
2020

This presentation of Iman Raad's recent still-life paintings depicts combinations of oversized objects. Be it a bird or a bowl, a flower or a fruit, each object seems to be enclosed within a frame and trapped in domestic settings against a flattened background. The objects are
mostly depicted in contrasting tones and distorted perspectives, revealing the artist's background in graphic design, his references to Persian Miniature, and his interest in popular prints and backdrops.
The pieces in “In Her Sweetest, Saddest Plight” also feature Iman Raad's more recent approach to representations of light and reflection. By placing objects alternately facing or against a twilight background, the artist makes shadows disappear, once again highlighting flatness as a dominant feature of his imagery. This aspect is also emphasized in his distinctive technique that employs thin layers of diluted acrylic paint on raw canvas, creating deftly punctuated tones of light across the picture's surface.
 

Images courtesy Dastan Gallery and Iman Raad

Watch:

Read:

Artsy