Statement:

O Gallery presents “Scene”, a collection of photographs and etchings by Shahin Esfandiari (b. 1986 Tehran, Iran), marking the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Conceptualized around the idea of “Nature as a Sensitive Surface,” the collection on display is the result of more than two years spent exploring Iran’s natural landscapes. 

Esfandiari approached this experience as a photographic process carried out by nature itself, continuously recording and revealing its own phenomena.///

Alongside his recurring broader landscapes, the presence of close-up etching studies also becomes significant. Esfandiari considers these delicate black-and-white or monochrome details as “symbolic cores that hold an entire landscape.”  

Followed by a year of printmaking, in the second phase of the project, he has used etching to transfer these impressions onto printing plates. 

The medium’s compact capacity to distill forms into simple abstractions made it a fitting vehicle for translating his observations into visual expressions. 

Together, the two methods of works form a visual dialogue, each image expanding or echoing a vision.