Statement: 

It's the tiniest details that attract my attention. When I encounter something new, I tend to see its details first, and it is the sum of these details that forms the whole in my mind. A set of small and perhaps unimportant nuances may give meaning to that which is significant. The simplest, most basic shapes and themes can come together in infinite different combinations and create something novel, say something new every time; just like in a story whose small elements together form a narrative and instill a certain atmosphere, or bricks of the same shape and size that are stacked on top of each other to build a house, a bridge, a square, or an entire a city. And I see every city first as bricks and the leaves of its trees.///

SARAI Gallery (SARADIPOUR) is pleased to present a'=1, Sam Nikmaram's first solo exhibition at SARAI Gallery. a?=1 opens on August 19 and it will continue to run until September 2, 2022. The present exhibition consists of Nikmaram's ceramic and papiermâché sculptures and works on paper. 

Sam Nikmaram belongs to the younger generation of Iranian artists who use an increasingly playful, vibrant, and universal formal vocabulary to capture their complex and multilayered existence in a fast-paced world. Nikmaram's concern for nature and the forces shaping our living environment is reflected both in his choice of material - his sculptures are often made out of papier-mâché and disposable objects - and his often isometric drawings and paintings composed of neatly delineated, minimalistic examination of environmental elements including green and grey, clear and pollutant, each time creating a new and different whole.In a process involving bricolage, he collects used bottles, cans and other often-massed produced objects and step by step, guided by his child-like imagination turns them into unique, playful characters of presumably elaborate background stories. Nikmaram employs stylization and geometric order to create isometric spaces and give form to his variety of imaginary creatures of mythological and folkloric qualities. Attention to nature is one of the key features in his work not only in his technique and sustainable and ecological approach to sculpture but also as a source of inspiration for his creative process. In his view, imagination and myths are present in many actual and tangible aspects of the world, which is why many of his social concerns are reflected in his works in an imaginative way.