AMIR H. FALLAH - SPACED CASE
(Bong Rips, Magical Potions, Mystical Flora, and Avatars)
January 9 - February 13, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 9th, 4-7 PM
Employing
a range of American and Iranian imagery and styles, from miniature
painting to graffiti-art, Amir H. Fallah creates elaborate, lush and
complicated compositions in his paintings. For his first solo exhibit
at Baer Ridgway Exhibitions, Fallah will exhibit a new body of work
which is tailor-made for the gallery's hometown of San Francisco;
loaded with references of the pop, psychedelic, spiritual and virtual
adventures of California lifestyle. From elaborately colorful
arrangements of flowers and kaleidoscopic water pipes to live action
role playing, Fallah playfully incorporates his voyeuristic perspective
on the New Age and illicit drug cultures; themes riddled with
mysticism, superstition and desire to transform oneself while achieving
a state of bliss.
"I
have a love/hate relationship with all things relating to drug culture,
the occult, New Age, and so on. I'm attracted to the aesthetics of
these worlds, but I am repulsed by the message."
-Amir H. Fallah
"Although
whimsical, these canvases possess staggering social inferences, those
aimed at the amalgamation of his cultural background, as seen with
cutouts of Persian vases and Islamic artifacts and references to
American psychedelic culture and Western philosophy. The various
compartments in which his figures and objects appear are reminiscent of
the division of interior spaces seen in examples of Persian miniature
painting. The work also alludes to the New Age, quest for "eternal
youth" culture that has run rampant in Los Angeles, yet has been a
fixation in various cultures throughout the history of mankind."
- Maymanah Farhat
Born
in Iran, Fallah immigrated to the U.S. with his parents as a child and
was raised on the East Coast. Fallah attended Maryland Institute
College of Art (MICA) where he earned his BFA in Painting in 2002.
Fallah moved to Los Angeles in 2002 and received his MFA in Painting
from UCLA in 2005. Over the past decade Fallah's painting, collage and
sculptural installations have been exhibited internationally at Cherry
And Martin-Los Angeles, 31 Grand-New York, The Third Line-Dubai, Nathan
Larramendy Gallery-Ojai, LA Louver Gallery, Weatherspoon Art
Museum-North Carolina and The Sharjah Biennial, 2009.
