A painter of epic vistas and dazzling intricacies, Ali Banisadr creates complex worlds whose syncopated rhythms corral a multitude of references from history and art history, as well as allusions to our own turbulent times. The Changing Past, 2021, evokes the ways in which, throughout history, monuments, buildings and often entire cultures are toppled or erased in order to accommodate new beliefs and ideas, which in turn are succeeded by further layers of thinking or sets of ideals. Reflective of Banisadr’s ongoing interest in iconoclasm, the motifs in the painting are trans-historical: a disc, for instance, refers to a symbol from Ancient Egyptian times that migrates through time, its meaning and significance changed. Shifting thoughts and philosophies similarly echo through the work. G.I. Gurdjieff, the Russian philosopher, mystic and spiritual teacher whose work helped to bring ancient teachings and mysticism to the West, is cited as an influence. An enduring source of inspiration is the ancient Mesopotamian poem The Epic of Gilgamesh, which provides the artist with a rich source of visual imagery.

In Banisadr’s art such references reveal themselves not as static, sedimentary layers but as successive waves or currents. His abstract and semi-abstract forms flow together, intermingle or collide, submerging and resurfacing through the process of painting to become recast and transformed. With their legions of strafing lines, arcs, blurs and smears of colour, Banisadr’s paintings equally evoke the fractured and shimmering surfaces of our digital world.

About the artist

Born in 1976 in Tehran, Iran, Ali Banisadr lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. His work is currently on view at the Asia Society in New York in Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians, a group exhibition with works by more than twenty artists from Iran and its diaspora (10 September 2021–8 May 2022). Recent institutional solo exhibitions include Ali Banisadr: Beautiful Lies at Museo Bardini and Palazzo Vecchio, both in Florence, Italy; Ali Banisadr/Matrix 185, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT and Ultramarinus ­– Beyond the Sea, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece.

His work is in major institutional collections including: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna, Austria; British Museum, London, UK; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Het Noordbrabants Museum, Den Bosch, Netherlands; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Francois Pinault Foundation, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT.

The first major monograph on the artist was published by Rizzoli in May 2021.