Cheryl Sim on Blue Backdrop for Minor Arts
Transcript
Of Iranian heritage, Kamrooz Aram works across painting, collage, drawing, installation, and photography. His work compels us to consider the tenets of Western modernism as they impinge on art practices beyond the West, the effects and technologies of display, and questions of authenticity. With Blue Backdrop for Minor Arts he explores the complex connection between modernism and the ornament as they relate to display in the conventional practices of Western encyclopedic museums. While the work engages with formal aesthetics it also examines the uneven power relations traditionally set up between Western and non-Western art. Often these dynamics play out in hierarchies and arbitrary categories, such as modern art on the one hand and the decorative arts on the other. Aram reveals this false dichotomy, making space for the possibilities found in pluralities, overlaps, and interstices.
About Kamrooz Aram
Kamrooz Aram (b. 1978, Shiraz) received his BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore in 2001 and MFA from Columbia University, New York in 2003. Recent solo exhibitions include: Arabesque, Green Art Gallery, Dubai (2019); An Object, A Gesture, A Décor, FLAG Art Foundation, New York (2018); FOCUS: Kamrooz Aram, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas (2018); Ancient Blue Ornament, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta (2018); Ornament for Indifferent Architecture, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint-Martens-Latem (2017). Recent group exhibitions include: Fragile Frontiers: Visions on Iran’s in/visible borders, YARAT Centre, Baku (2019); Gateway: Fragments, Yesterday and Today, Gallery S, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi (2019); The Crime of Adolf Loos, Axel Vervoordt, Wijnegem (2019); Jameel Prize 5, The Porter Gallery, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2018); Le Musée Imaginaire, Pavillion Trab, Jaou Tunis (2018); Kamrooz Aram, Anwar Jalal Shemza, Hales Gallery, New York (2018). Kamrooz Aram lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Interview with Kamrooz Aram - PHI Foundation
Resources
Artist Website:
https://kamroozaram.com/Artist Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/kamroozegar/Related Press:
http://artistproject.metmuseum.org/5/kamrooz-aram/https://www.artforum.com/interviews/kamrooz-aram-discusses-his-recent-work-and-shows-in-dubai-and-belgium-65644
https://manpodcast.com/portfolio/no-337-kamrooz-aram-matthew-angelo-harrison/