Ayyam Gallery is pleased to present Can You Keep a Secret?, a solo exhibition featuring a new body of work by Afshin Pirhashemi.
In Afshin Pirhashemi’s work, black is a symbol for the power that cloaks femininity, truth, militancy and a worldview in which the stakes are high. His monochrome register never loses its dimensionality, although primary colours have begun to seep in, as well as the sheen of poetic fragments.
The iconic women that populate Pirhashemi’s paintings like alter-egos – a recurring motif – are both alluring and forbidding, multiple and individual yet in this latest series, they have come into their own. Layered with different texts, their outlines stream into colours and forms, evading absolute capture. At times, they seem familiar, symbolic of the film industry and popular culture. Other times, they are imaginative – superheroes conjured by the artist. Often they appear as real characters, raw and terrifying. They bleed and write confessional texts. Both violence and seduction are always implicit in Pirhashemi’s paintings except this time, a vulnerability manifests, deepening his photorealistic approach and inciting untold stories.
