HOME is delighted to present Painting, An Unending, a solo show of new work by artist Parham Ghalamdar, his largest institutional exhibition to date.
This exhibition brings together new paintings in oil, ceramics, and animation to create an immersive installation. Incorporating art historical and contemporary cultural references, Ghalamdar introduces an artificial intelligence tool to his practice as an extension of his sketchbook.
Elements ranging from a tent in a 15th Century fresco by Piero de la Francesca1, and vases featured in the 11th Century poetry of Omar Khayyam, to objects from American cowboy cartoons and sci-fi films consumed during his childhood in Iran, are painted against bleak landscapes, creating often absurdly humorous epic scenes. Eschewing narrative, he approaches his work as a performer warming up their vocal cords, shape shifting colour with texture, surface quality and composition to infuse a dreamlike, surreal sensibility.
An artificial intelligence tool that creates realistic images from text descriptions, is prompted with social scenes or situations that due to the artist’s political beliefs or sexuality would be impossible in his homeland. The results appear surprising and random. Incorporating them into his work, he repaints and repeats the process endlessly. The work jumps from one epoch, or socio/political context, to another within the same canvas, exploring notions of identity politics, migration, freedom of movement, borders, community and belonging.
The repetition and production of his work can be seen as a liberating process of catharsis, reconciliation or reckoning with his past, a coming of age in an authoritarian regime in the aftermath of a failed revolution. In a country where imported western culture was readily consumed, yet laws on the production of culture in Iran consistently ambiguous, redefined or banned, Ghalamdar pushes the limitations of the medium of painting through AI image synthesis, navigating the tensions and traversing between self-expression and authorship; authenticity and censorship.
About the artist
Parham Ghalamdar is a painter and has a background as a member of the graffiti collective ELF in Tehran. He studied MA in painting at Manchester School of Art and specialized in oil painting. His recent work examines the relationship between contemporary painting with the past, i.e. Christianity, and the future, i.e. internet and digital culture, to negotiate the present.
Ghalamdar has been expanding his painting and drawing practice into the digital realm since the temporary closure of his studio during the national lockdown in 2020. This resulted in 9 thousand frames of animation produced in the past two years. He has recently finished two short animations/films in collaboration with the director Martin Cooper, commissioned by the Oscar-winning artist, animator, filmmaker, Joan Gratz.
Ghalamdar is a member of the Workplace Foundation’s Community of Artists. He currently has a solo screening of his animation at Bavan Gallery, Tehran, Iran. Recent solo exhibitions include Fig.1 at Caustic Coastal; A fine Kettle Of Fish at Granada Foundation Galleries HOME, Manchester, and Against the Absurdity Of Life at Maria Behnam-Bakhtiar Gallery, Monte-Carlo, France. Recent group exhibitions include at Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London; London Paint Club, Floorr Magazine; Castlefield Gallery, Manchester; Manchester Art Gallery; Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; Beep Painting Biennale, Swansea; Asia Now Art Fair, Paris. In 2022 he undertook as residency at Desire Lines Residency Programme.
Curated by Clarissa Corfe. Painting, An Unending is commissioned by HOME.
Image: Parham Ghalamdar, part of Painting, An Unending, 2022
event
In Conversation: Nick Jordan, Chris Paul Daniels and Parham Ghalamdar + Guests
Join the Gallery Spring 2023 exhibiting artists and their guests in conversation on their solo exhibitions and wider practices.