Hossein Valamanesh: Selected Works 1992 - 2013
March 18 - April 30, 2013
Grey Noise, Dubai
HOSSEIN VALAMANESH: SELECTED WORKS 1992 - 2013
March 18 - April 30, 2013
Grey Noise, Dubai is pleased to announce Hossein Valamanesh’s debut exhibition in the Middle East, opening March 18 – April 30, 2013.
Reflecting on personal history, memory and his interaction with the world at large, Hossein Valamanesh’s work could be seen as a form of conversation with his viewers.
The exhibition at Grey Noise will exhibit fourteen art works, spanning the years 1992 - 2013, to mark the artists first survey show in the region.
The selection aims at presenting the diverse nature of his art practice, while resonating acute connections through conceptual, aesthetic and visual concerns. Furthermore, the composition of his work traces back to Valamanesh’s Iranian background while still heavily mirroring Australian culture and landscape, a place the artist has lived in for the past forty years. His work oscillates on the levels of lyrical imagery; deeply enigmatic and open to many interpretations.
About the Artist
Hossein Valamanesh was born in Iran in 1949 and graduated from the School of Fine Art in Tehran in 1970. Between 1968 and 1971 he worked with the renowned theatre director, the late Bijan Mofid. He immigrated to Australia in 1973 arriving in Perth. In 1974 he travelled to central Australia with Round Earth Company where he worked with Aboriginal children at a number of different settlements for four months.
In 1975 he commenced further studies in visual arts at the South Australian School of Art, and since graduating he has exhibited frequently in Australia and overseas including Germany, Poland, Finland and Japan.
He has completed a number of major public art commissions including Knocking from the Inside, 1989, Adelaide; You just sit here… FARET Tachikawa, 1994, Tokyo. His collaborations with Angela Valamanesh include An Gorta Mor, memorial to the Great Irish Famine, 1999, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney; 14 Pieces on North Terrace, in Adelaide and most recently they completed Ginkgo Gate, a new western entrance to the Botanic Gardens, Adelaide.
Hossein has received numerous awards including the Australia Council Residency in Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 1991, and an Australia Council Fellowship in 1998. His work is included in most major public Australian art collections. A monograph on his work, written by Paul Carter, was published in 1996 by Art & Australia and a major survey of his work was held at the Art Gallery of South Australia in mid 2001 with an accompanying catalogue which included essays by Sarah Thomas, Ian North & Paul Carter. A survey of his work was held at Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, 2002.
In 2007 he has completed a residency at Aomori Contemporary Art Center in Japan and a number of his works were shown in Prism, Contemporary Art from Australia at the Bridgestone Art Museum, Tokyo.
In collaboration with Brink Productions, Andrew Bovell and Quinton Grant he completed the stage design for When the Rain Stops Falling that was first performed in 2008 Adelaide Festival of Arts.
A monograph of his work, titled Hossein Valamanesh, Out of nothingness, was recently published by Wakefield Press with essays by Mary Knights and Ian North.
He lives and works in Adelaide, South Australia and is Represented: Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide: Breenspace, Sydney: Rose Issa Projects, London.
This project has been assisted by the Government of South Australia through Arts SA.
press release pdf / view show