Art on 56th is pleased to announce FUGUES, a solo-exhibition of works by Iranian artist Mahmoud Hamadani. The show will feature his most recent body of ink drawings.
Paying tribute to his love for music, Hamadani’s drawings in the series Requiem are rooted in lyricism. Inspired by the melodies of Johann Sebastian Bach, the works are akin to visual interpretations of Bach’s music. The minimalistic, monochromatic compositions play with the iconography of notes, and serve as partitions that guide his creative process. Through iterations and variations, Hamadani constructs his own visual rhythm, a silent symphony that comes alive in the mind. In their intricacy, formality, variety and symmetry the drawings evoke Fugues.
The process is essential to Hamadani’s craft, where he selects a specific application technique, while simultaneously surrendering to the hand of fate. For instance, in the Traces series, the artist blows the ink onto the paper, allowing droplets to fall where they may. Seeking to find a balance between chance and will, his drawings orchestrate a dance between decision and accident. The tensions between light and darkness, purpose and improvisation, control and freedom are the subjects of his works, the dichotomies that are the ver y incarnation of life. The result is an oeuvre dedicated to the investigation of the space within those polarities, a quest to find perfect equilibrium.
