VAHID HAKIM

Falling In Order
28 October -25 November, 2016

Assar Art Gallery presents Falling In Order, the latest paintings by Vahid Hakim.

In his second show with the gallery, Hakim exhibits what he sophisticatedly created in the past three years.

In this exhibition, the artist’s signature abstract compositions find a minimal yet figurative tone.  Relishing the type of art that is still connected to the conventional concept of beauty, Hakim vigilantly creates 11 minimal paintings with figurative edgings and delicate colored motifs in the heart of blackness.

In the series, what is seen at first glance is a flat black surface with some miniature color shapes, but from a closer view, the neat cross-hatchings that come in three different types of black as well as the color motifs that appear from beneath grab the attention.

What speaks of its own and makes Hakim’s work more contemporarily and internationally interpretable, is his painterly method/language. Designing traditional looking motifs and employing them on an opaque colored base, covered by layers of immaculate watercolor and ink hatches over one another, is Vahid Hakim’s splendid achievement in his latest body of work. With this technique, the dulcet symmetrical forms he has designed for each and every composition emerge very softly in color from the depth of each painting. Although both the outer forms of the edges and the inside motifs are rooted in traditional Persian designs as in lacquer pen boxes, book covers, doors, carpets and tiles, they feel very different, as they are tailor-made designs by the artist, for each of the works.

Although each work is hundred percent invented with no direct historical reference, they all refer somehow to some of the visual goings-on of the Qajar era. Hence, what is on view is a number of minimal almost monochrome compositions with figurative edges and color forms of Persian roots.

Vahid Hakim lives and works in Tehran. He has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions since his first solo show in 1994. He was the winner of the 6th Contemporary Painting Biennale in Tehran. In addition to painting, he writes and translates essays in the field of Art and Literature.