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Shaped wooden panels, black surfaces, golden lines, astral colors, sparkling imagination, refined creatures… The incantations of Khosro Berahmandi's brushes diffracted the space at MEKIC Gallery this past May. Khosro Berahmandi, an Iranian born painter exhibited for the third time in MEKIC Gallery the outgrowth of his unique reflections, an unclassifiable set of works developed over the past year entitled "Nebulous Rings," from which re-emerges majestically his universe of infinite detail, a bewitching fantasy of strange creatures which continually challenge the onlooker, a mythology that is at once personal, prodigious, and captivating.
For the pleasure of both connoisseurs and amateurs, Khosro Berahmandi reveals to the eye of the spectator the depth of his art. Created with the precision and skill comparable to those of a master goldsmith, 25 black panels were unveiled, often having original triangular or round shapes, with a multitude of recurrent motifs. Lines, squares, and circles crisscross, interlace, overlay, nest within, and impose order on each other, unifying into a harmonious set of mature and thoughtful compositions that echo fantastic landscapes. At the center of these perfectly mastered compositions, the artist creates a tangible space from which grows various icon-like symbols that serve to articulate his vision. These semi icon-like symbols appear as stylized animals and refined human figures, whose beauty metamorphoses the compositions by endowing them with an exceptional and metaphoric vitality.
To discover Khosro's visual language, we are offered many paths filled with multiple interpretive possibilities that open wide before our eyes. The abundance of detail compels us to plunge into different levels of his paintings, feeling them rather than understanding them. Even though the artist carefully chooses the title of each piece, the words refuse to serve as a reference point and leave us pondering in the labyrinth-like space behind each title. At times playful, at times strange or mysterious, Khosro's work forces us to ignore reason and permit the senses to connect directly with the enigmatic imaginary world revealed through this encounter. In "Nebulous Rings" only once does Khosro Berahmandi stray from his artistic practice, which otherwise moves beyond identity or historical reference. On one wall, a four-panel painting explicitly pays tribute to the tragedy of Neda, a young Iranian woman killed in Tehran during a mass protest against the disputed June 2009 election. Like many of his compatriots, Khosro was profoundly moved by her death, and by the courage and resistance of the Iranian people in recent times.
Khosro Berahmandi whose work has woven a magnificent bond between the classical Orient and the contemporary Occident, has recently expanded his creative horizons through research done at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on Persian miniature painting of the Ilkhanid period (1206-1353) and of the Safavid period (1501-1722). He has thus anchored his thought more deeply in the tradition of Persian miniatures, while nevertheless unleashing the exuberance and fantasy that abstract painting imparts to his brushstrokes. Observing his work at Queen Gallery, one can conclude that even though painting flows in his blood, so do precision, order, and attention to every detail, and this is true for every stage of his work.
Accompanied by a bilingual book-catalogue Oblivion and Silence, the exhibition, features Khosro Berahmandi as a prolific, inspiring and inspired artist, whose works manifest an undeniably original form of expression that sways at times toward lightness or amazement, and at times toward darkness or bitterness , intertwining the ancient and modern.
Biography
Born in Iran in the late fifties, Khosro Beramandi was raised in Tehran when Shah was in power when Shah was in power. In his early twenties, during his technical studies at the university, he let himself be carried away by the wind of the Iranian revolution and the dream of living in a free Iran. His dream was soon destroyed by the reality of the revolution. Deeply affected by the loss of his close friends, he left his native country and found refuge and safety in Rome after crossing two countries on foot. The sublime beauty of the Sixtine Church in the ancient grand capital, directed him towards a new desire: painting.
At the beginning of the eighties, Khosro arrived in Canada with a mind full of questions about his destiny. Without concrete answers to his interrogation, Khosro Berahmandi sought a second refuge in which he could express his dismay and find an answer to his existential quest.He studied fine arts in the University of Western Ontario. His first course with the painter, Paterson Ewen, gave him courage to undertake the difficult approach to artistic creation. Khosro finished his bachelors at Concordia University in Montreal and continued his studies at the University of Paris VIII. There he not only obtained a master’s degree in visual arts, but also discovered the aesthetic of the French capital.
Based in Montreal since 1980, he contributes to the cultural life of metropolis with his expositions and painting courses as well as his cooperation with “Festival Accès Asie”. Europe and North America opened his eyes and his heart on Western and contemporary art through its museums and its teachers.His style of painting is faithful to its origins and its outstanding vision. From Iran, he keeps the cultural heritage and the millennium pictorial tradition of the miniatures that had penetrated his childhood and his adolescence. Gaining his inspiration from the eyes of the others, the words of the poets, and the notes of the musicians, Khosro Berahmandi dreams of a harmonious future through artistic creation.
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