Sarvenaz Farsian
Untitled, n.d.
Ink on canvas
39 x 27.5 inches
99.1 x 69.9 cm
SvF 4
Natural Abstraction
(January 22 - March 26, 2022)
The word abstraction holds almost infinite aspects. For the mainstream artworld it is an intention, a deliberate chosen mode with its own global history of development. Abstraction is a language unquestioned by most contemporary artists and viewers. It is a respected part of the art historical mainstream and one form of many available to contemporary artists — it is theirs to choose.
It isn’t that way in the non-mainstream world. Unlike artists working in the mainstream, the very word choice is questionable. To the non-western world a work’s abstraction often codifies its spiritual or utilitarian purpose in order to hide or simplify its meaning and the perception of its meaning,
In the world of non-mainstream artists including those in the categories of Art Brut, or the indigenous art of the Black Atlantic, abstraction is not an intellectual intention. The artists are not making work in the language of the Academy or as a continuation of a movement of art history.
Often, as in the cases of Emery Blagdon, Jaroslav Čevora, Sarvenaz Farsian, J.B. Murray, Izabella Ortiz, Anna Zemánková and Henriette Zéphir, the abstraction serves the purpose of activating a charged visionary space. Čevora and Blagdon use it to create a form to contain chaos, or in Blagdon’s case, to contain electromagnetic energy used for healing.
Joseph Lambert and Sarvanez Farsian suggest an animistic connection with a horror vacui earth, a topography of active accumulation, which ultimately pulls us into the details on the paper. Ghasem Ahmadi’s work animates the very air, his seemingly wind-blown freshets of marks and particles remind the viewer of the murmuration of birds. He presents us ultimately with organized chaos. Éric Derochette pushes his intellectual limitations into grand gestural markings that also hang in the air drenched in his glorious colors like reflections in a waterfall. Tony Pedemonte makes his wrapped pieces not so much to contain secrets as to express himself in gesture and color.
None of these artists set out to make abstraction. The formal concept of abstract art has little or no meaning to artists who make art as a means of personal survival. It is us–the art world of collectors, dealers, and scholars who see it as abstract and call it abstract.
Other artists included in this exhibition are Guillaume Couffignal, JJ Cromer, and Gregory Van Maanen.
