Dastan is pleased to announce the opening of Ali Beheshti’s solo exhibition titled “Insensible” at Dastan’s Basement. The exhibition will be open for public viewing from May 12 through May 19, 2017. This is Ali Beheshti’s first solo exhibition at Dastan. His work has been previously featured in “Agog” curated by Aidin Xankeshipour in a Dastan:Outside project at V-Cafe’s Basement and a number of group drawing exhibitions.
Ali Beheshti (b. 1988, Qom, Iran) has focused deeply on new experiments in drawing using a wide variety of materials. By mixing familiar techniques, including multiple thin layers of graphite powder, ink and pencil, with more unconventional approaches, such as print transfers, the artist has created drawings that have the appearance of three-dimensional works.
“Insensible” is a series of works which Ali Beheshti started in 2015. They are as much independent as a continuation of his previous explorations in drawing and painting. Residing in Talesh County in the north of Iran for about five months between 2012 and 2013, he was heavily influenced by the mystical nature of this region. This affected the color palette and atmosphere of his works. Starting with abstract landscapes, he gradually included different objects in his works, drawing inspirations from the play of light in this region. Ali Beheshti’s drawings were originally “studies of objects in the foreground of abstractions aimed towards taking away the fundamental properties of these objects and putting them in isolation.” Nevertheless, while both his drawings and oil color paintings developed in form, approach and technique, he felt “that in nothingness, the objects revealed their self-sufficiency again”. On this series, the artist writes: “something appears in something else’s clothes; it shows itself only to hide.”