Statement:

pippy Houldsworth Gallery  is delighted to present "Ray of Light", the first UK solo exhibition of Iranian-American artist Nasim Hantehzadeh. Working in oil, pastel and graphite, across both canvas and paper, Hantehzadeh brings together freewheeling figurative elements in vibrant and arresting compositions which allude to a range of references, including Paleolithic cave paintings, indigenous art from Mexico and ancient Persian rug patterns. Hantehzadeh’s work often reveals their particular interest in Mayan and pre-Islamic art and artefacts, occasioned by evidence of matriarchal and gender-fluid practices that existed in these cultures prior to European colonisation.///

Hantehzadeh creates moving narratives that examine the shifting spaces that coalesce around identity, personhood, sexuality and race. They evoke a world in which categories are deliberately in flux and undefined, eschewing dogmatic binaries in favour of a more nuanced approach to gender that has much in common with the natural world. Embellished orifices and sexual organs are transfigured from the corporeal to the otherworldly in an earthen palette enlivened with phosphorescent pigments, which complement their biomorphic and abstract forms. In On the night of the full moon, we learned to trust each other,the artist looks to nature for enlightenment, invoking indigenous wisdom. Ovoid shapes are balanced precariously, jostling against one another in a visual representation of the meaning of trust. Meanwhile a circular form at the height of the drawing acts as a metaphor for the moon – ever present but out of reach. The influence of Hilma af Klint and Agnes Pelton’s spiritually inflected abstractions is felt in Hantehzadeh’s celestial compositions, which deliberately disorient the viewer with their spiralling architecture.