Untitled

A monumental jar emerges from the picture plane in clay greens and yellows, its textured surface edged with Farsi lettering. The work belongs to Moshiri’s jar paintings, in which he translated the curved, three-dimensional presence of an ancient vessel onto a flat surface; the surface recalls unworked clay and was made by layering and scrubbing the paint, folding the canvas, leaving it exposed to the elements and applying glue. Its restrained palette recalls the deserts of Iran and the adobe dwellings of its villages.