A group of 15 works by Iranian artist Homa Delvaray may steal the spotlight this year in the Frame section in Frieze New York. With Farsi script on layers of fabric, the series is a colorful example of Frame’s mission: to educate viewers about emerging artists.
The title of Ms. Delvaray’s collection, “The Garden of Desolation”, could also capture the atmosphere of a world still grappling with a pandemic as war rages on in Europe. Her series uses arbitrary lines of Farsi poetry to soften images of the ever-changing world beyond every safe and quiet garden the Frame viewer can imagine.
Ms. Delvaray will join 10 other artists at Frame, a section of Frieze New York dedicated to those represented by galleries less than 10 years old. It’s a way to spotlight emerging artists — and gallers — as a potential stepping stone to the big time.
“People recognize Frieze and the names of galleries in the main body of the fair, but Frame is truly a place of discovery for international artists,” said Christine Messineo, director of Frieze New York and Frieze Los Angeles. “It’s that chance to start their march into the bigger market. Frame gives us a more complete picture of what to look for.”
“The Garden of Desolation” consists of 15 digital prints of lines of classical Iranian poetry, reproduced in various sizes on felt, giving the series the almost quilt-like look and feel. Each piece consists of three layers that are sewn together by hand and then framed in a metal structure.
Imaginary floor plans are printed on a separate sheet and represent modern buildings that have replaced gardens in Mrs. Delvaray’s homeland and the world. She chose poets who wrote in Farsi and borrowed lines to tell the story of besieged gardens.
“All the lines of the poetry have been taken out of context,” explains Ms Delvaray through an interpreter, “but they’re all talking about a lost or forgotten garden, and they seem a little desperate to get it back. poets, I forced them into a kind of dialogue.”
Ms. Delvaray’s inspiration for “Garden” began in 2019 in the Iranian province of Kerman, where she participated in a curatorial project with several other Iranian artists. The theme was to visit two gardens: the lush Shazdeh Garden on a desert oasis, and a stone garden where rocks are hung from dry or dead trees. That space, created by a local farmer to protest land reforms in the 1960s, has become a tourist destination.
“A private garden is your innermost private space and it is often a buffer for the city, especially due to urbanization,” said Ms Delvaray. “What I’m trying to portray is a contemporary, universal garden and the conflicts of the past versus the present. The garden has been robbed of its core meaning.”
Ms. Delvaray’s presence in Frieze New York follows closely behind “Soft Edge of the Blade,” an exhibition by Iranian artists that ran from February 3 to March 1 at gallery No. 9 Cork Street in London. (The gallery, a Frieze initiative dedicated to international artists, opened in October.)
At that show, the Dastan Gallery in Tehran, which represents Ms. Delvaray in Frieze New York, presented artists who often portray violence and when it occurs – during war, political oppression, migration – in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East. Mrs. Delvaray’s contribution, a cloth sculpture called ‘Khash’, is inspired by an ancient Persian childbirth ritual in which caregivers used a sharp tool to etch a line in the ground around the mother to protect her from evil spirits.
“That sculpture was hanging from the ceiling in a window and it really magnetized people and drew them in,” said Selvi May Akyildiz, director of gallery No. 9 Cork Street. “I didn’t know her work before. It had a kind of anthropological approach.”
It was an honor to be included in that exhibition along with other Iranian artists, Ms Delvaray said. The London show — and now Dastan’s presence in Frieze New York — is exciting for any Iranian artist looking to become internationally known, she said.
“There is an active and vibrant art scene here in Iran, but the world wants to see a very different Iran,” she said. “The world sees us in a very exotic way. But it really isn’t. It is a normal country and people go on with their lives from day to day.”
Other artists in this year’s Frame include Yan Xinyue (represented by Capsule Shanghai), a Chinese painter who also explores life’s challenges during rapid urbanization; Ivan Cheng (Édouard Montassut, Paris), whose installation deals with, among other things, the distribution of wealth; and Marsha Pels (Lubov, New York), whose work “Dead Mother” uses a mink stole as a canvas.
Because the different works came together in Frame this year, similarities arose in the styles of the artists.
“For example, we have one painter, Judith Geichman, who was a discovery for me, and at the same time we have Emma McIntyre, who works in a very different way,” said Ms. Messineo. “But they are both abstract artists, and you can almost see a dividing line between their works, which happened completely by accident. It’s so exciting when that happens.”
According to her, that’s exactly what every curator, artist or gallerist hopes to find at an art fair – and exactly what Frame was founded for in 2012. caused, the founders of Frame hope to return to their original vision.
“You have a different conversation about artwork that will never be displayed digitally,” Ms. Messineo said. “There are places for reunions. Our artist communities come together: the curators, the collectors. You drink. You gossip. I’m looking forward to that community building and seeing people in the aisles after two years.”
