ELAHE HEIDARI

31 August -15 September, 2023

A collaboration between Assar and Emkan galleries, the collection on display is the second exhibition of a series to be held at various praised associate galleries during Assar’s provisional state of relocating.

The drawings in this collection are a selection of 8 portraits powerfully made by Elahe Heidari in the early 2000s that mark the starting point of an ongoing practice that took about twenty years up to the present. The ability to objectify the imagination, which has developed throughout years of her practice under the influence of her observational power, has appeared in these drawings in the purest possible form.

The works on display are a continuation of the blue portraits, exhibited in 2005 at Etemad Gallery. From that exhibition to “The Stills” (2017, Assar Gallery), and later “She” (an exhibition of recent works scheduled for September 2022 at Assar Gallery but postponed due to Iran’s social turmoil), the works in this selection have maintained a powerful, yet independent identity throughout years of transformation and change.

Drawing with ink on paper is one of the most direct mediums that provides the possibility and opportunity to convey all emotions, feelings, concepts, thoughts, and imaginations of the artist only by emphasizing the form in the most spontaneous way, to establish an unmediated connection between the creation process and the final result. Therefore, and as a result of her strong visual expression, the meticulous collection on display can truly reveal the imaginary world as well as the world-view of the artist to the eyes of the beholder.

Elahe Heidari was born in 1968 in Tehran, and in the past twenty-five years, her work has been exhibited in the form of solo exhibitions in some of Tehran's most prestigious galleries and in some very selected domestic and international group exhibitions. The exhibition on display is Heidari 's third solo show with Assar Gallery, which is held in collaboration with Emkan Gallery.