Ali Banisadr

Ali Banisadr is a contemporary artist focusing on abstract landscape painting fusing experiences as a refugee from the Iran-Iraq war with imagery drawn from Persian miniatures and mythology. Banisadr depicts fields of frenetic, abstract brushwork that reflect ideas of violence, chaos, displacement, and memory. His work has been compared to that of both Hieronymous Bosch and Willem de Kooning.

Life

Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1976, Ali Banisadr grew up during the Islamic revolution and the eight-year Iran-Iraq War forcing him and his family to relocate. In 1988, he and his family left Iran, first to Turkey and then to California. In 2000, he moved to New York City where he received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2005, and his MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2007 where he was awarded the post graduate fellowship followed by winning an award in painting from New York Foundation for the Arts. Since his first solo exhibition in 2008, Banisadr has exhibited in the United States and abroad and had several works housed in prestigious public collections worldwide including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Museum of Contemporary Art of Los Angeles, Saatchi Gallery in London and the British Museum among others. Banisadr currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Work

When asked about his paintings, Banisadr describes: "My work has always been about creating an encyclopedic world, a place that reflects what is occurring in my imagination."^[1] The artist draws a parallel to Jorge Luis Borges' short story "The Aleph" which describes a point in space that contains all other points and from where everything can be seen from every angle simultaneously.

Jeffrey Deitch writes about the artist: "Asked about the genesis of the work, Banisadr explains that his paintings begin with a sound and that his composition follows “the sounds within the painting.” He recalls that as a child in Iran, he would make drawings based on the explosions he would hear during the Eight Years’ War with Iraq. His painting process is still guided by this fusion of sound and image."^[2]

Public collections

Ali Banisadr's work is in public collections such as The British Museum in London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Los Angeles's Museum of Contemporary Art, The Olbricht Collection in Germany, Francois Pinault Foundation, Vienna's Sammlung Essl,and Museum der Moderne, Salzburg.^[6]

The artist's work has been featured in "Love Me/Love Me Not: Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and Its Neighbors" at the 55th International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale (2013)

• Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
• The British Museum, UK
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria
• Miniature Museum, The Hague, Netherlands
• The Olbricht Collection, Germany
• Francois Pinault Foundation
• Saatchi Gallery, London
• Sammlung Essl, Vienna, Austria

Solo exhibitions

• 2015: At Once,^[3] Blain|Southern, London, 11 February 2015 – 21 March 2015
• 2014: Motherboard,^[4] Sperone Westwater, New York
• 2012: We Haven’t Landed on Earth Yet,^[5] Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
• 2011: It Happened and It Never Did,^[6] Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
• 2010: Evidence,^[7] Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris (works on paper); Paintings,^[8] Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
• 2008: Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York^[9]

Select Group Exhibitions

• 2014
  • Love Me/ Love Me Not, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbors,^[10] Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan
  • Eurasia. A View on Painting,^[11] Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Pantin, France
  • Between Worlds,^[12] Galerie Isa, Mumbai, India, Curated by Jane Neal
• 2013
  • Love Me/ Love Me Not, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbors,^[13] The 55th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
  • Expanded Painting,^[14] Prague Biennale 6, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Cinematic Visions: Painting at the Edge of Reality,^[15] Victoria Miro, London UK
  • A Selection of Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
  • Safar/Voyage,^[16] Museum of Anthropology, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (Curated by Fereshteh Daftari)
  • Frauen Liebe und Leben (The Klocker Collection) Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany
  • Tectonic,^[17] The Moving Museum, Gate Village, DIFC, Dubai
  • Disaster The End of Days,^[18] Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Pantin, France
• 2012
  • Contemporary Iranian Art in the Permanent Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Sound of Painting (Curated by Margherita Artoni), Palazzo Saluzzo Paesana, Turin, Italy
  • Peekskill Project V, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY (Curated by Livia Straus & Lilly Wei)
  • Lucie Fontaine: Estate Vernissage,^[19] Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York
  • 2010
  • Hareng Saur: Ensor and Contemporary Art, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK), Ghent, Belgium
  • Contemporary Notes,^[20] Assar Gallery, Tehran, Iran
• 2009
  • Epic Painting,^[21] Samek Gallery, Bucknell University, Pennsylvania
  • Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East,^[22] Saatchi Gallery, London
• 2008
  • Weaving The Common Thread, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York

Selected Publications

1. Charlotte Mullins, Picturing People: The New State of the Art, 192 pages, Thames & Hudson (September 2015)
2. Robert Hobbs, Boris Groys, One Hundred and Twenty Five Paintings, BlainSouthern,^[23] 244 pages (February 2015)
3. Donald Kuspit, Irving Sandler, Margaret McCann, Bob Colacello, "The Figure" , Skira Rizzoli 240 Pages (September 2014)
4. Jeffrey Deitch,“Sound of Painting”, Sperone Westwater, 48 pages (March 2014)
5. Michael Peppiatt, "Art Plural: Voices of Contemporary Art”, Gatehouse Publishing, 240 pages (January 2014)
6. Nicola Trezzi, "Ali Banisadr": Tectonic, 405 Pages (April 2013)
7. Giancarlo Politi, Helena Kontova, Nicola Trezzi, "Expanded Painting": Prague Biennale 6, 205 Pages (June 2013)
8. Nicholas Cullinan, Negar Azimi, Dina Nasser-Khadivi, Nada Raza, "Love me Love me Not": Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, The 55th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale Catalogue, 164 pages (June 2013)
9. Fereshteh Daftari, Jill Baird, "Safar/Voyage", Published by UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver 121 pages (April 2013)
10. Philippe Dagen, Raimund Stecker, Denise Wendel-poray, "Frauen Liebe Und Leben", Lehmbruck Museum, Hatje Cantz, 288 Pages (April 2013)
11. Michael Bracewell, "Disaster: The End of Days”, Published by Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac (March 2013)
12. Margherita Artoni, The Sound of Painting, Published by Palazzo Saluzzo Paesana, 75 pages (November 2012)
13. Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, "Hue + Cry”, Published by Sotheby's S2, New York (October 2012)
14. Maryam Ekhtiar, Greg Lindquist, “We Haven’t Landed on Earth Yet”, Published by Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, D.A.P. (June 2012)
15. Jane Neal, “Referencing History”, Published by Green Art Gallery, Dubai (May 2012)
16. Nicola Trezzi, "Visions", Published by Monica De Cardenas, Milan, 55 pages : Ali Banisadr, Jules De Balincourt, Tomory Dodge, Barnaby Furnas, Ryan Mosley (September 2011)
17. Jane Neal, "East ex East", Published by Brand New Gallery, Milan, 104 pages (June 2011)
18. Hareng Saur : Ensor and Contemporary Art, distributed by Ludion, S.M.A.K. and MSK Ghent, 2010, 240 pages (Texts by Pierre Alechinsky, Ali Banisadr, Susan Canning, Robert Hoozee, Timothy Hyman, Yang Jiechang, Bart Koubaa, Thomas Kowalski, Enrique Marty, Emilio López-Menchero, Raymond Pettibon, Elly Strik, Koen Theys and Philippe Van Cauteren.)
19. Fereshteh Daftari, "Ali Banisadr", Published by Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, 2010, 52 pages
20. Epic Painting, Bucknell University/Samek Art Gallery, 2009 (Essay by Dan Mills)
21. Different Sames: New Perspectives on Contemporary Iranian Art, ed. Hossain Amirsadeghi (London: TransGlobe Publishing Ltd., 2009)
22. Raad O Bargh, Text by Vali Mahlouji (Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, 2009) 20-23.
23. Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East (London: The Saatchi Gallery, London, 2009), 33–36.
24. Ali Banisadr: Paintings (New York: Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, 2008)

References