96" x 72"

The work “Untitled'' explores the relationship between people and cultural value systems of different places around the world. Identity, gender, culture, diversity, and contradictions are the main theme for this painting. The variety of cultures and beliefs challenges the way artists or even ordinary people express themselves. In a particular culture, painting, drawing, and sculpting of a human figure could be considered an unforgivable sin and even idolatry, so artists must express their feelings and thoughts through creating designs, patterns, shapes, and other visual elements except for the human figure. In contrast. in other cultures, people believe showing a beautiful and perfect human body is a way of worshiping God. They have created numerous paintings and sculptures to draw people’s attention to understand how blessed they are that God has created them.

The “Untitled” is inspired by these contradictions and also a personal horrendous memory. One of my best friends was banned from attending school and was locked down at home because of her sexual orientation. This incident profoundly moved me. Immigrating to the United States and encountering many LGBTQIA+ people, who are expressing their identity freely, has reminded me of the old painful memory. Why should minority groups suffer and be rejected in traditional religious societies? Their lives and their state of being are in serious danger. I incorporated the cracked worn tile patterns with the idealized human body created by the genius artist who was brave enough to show his passion for the male body when homosexuality was an unforgivable sin. Additionally, I put it in the Persian context by painting it with Persian Green, the greenish bluish color which has originated from ancient Persia and is found in many forms of traditional Persian architecture, pottery, tiles, and paintings. Demonstrating that these contradictions are not valid anymore for the educated, wise, knowledgeable generation of today!