Discovering artists at Lawrie Shabibi gallery

Farhad Ahrarnia. Anywhere Out of the World. 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Lawrie Shabibi.

Have you been to see all the summer shows in town yet? Many of the galleries are running extended exhibitions throughout the long, hot summer to keep us entertained and our art-thirst quenched.

A personal discovery for me was the work of Farhad Ahrania at Lawrie Shabibi’s group show titled Unseen. The works here are from his Khatam series. A khatam is an Iranian micro-mosaic used decoratively to embellish domestic objects. It was originally imported from China 700 years ago during period of Mongol rule, but improved upon by Persian craftsmen. Individual strings of long thin filaments made from organic materials such as ivory, camel bone, wood, copper, silver and brass are methodically grouped together, then cut at the cross section to reveal strips of complex geometric compositions. In these works, Ahrarnia explores the mark-making techniques of the khatam as well as their inherent geometric structures.

Unseen runs until the end of August.

www.lawrieshabibi.com