An Urban Sufi

My work is a test case in cultural tolerance…

  

“Finding a way to live together without violence or hostility will require a kind of creativity and invention.” Edward Said, 1978

  My life and my art is rooted in concepts of nowness.  I look for various ways of straddling extremes as a test case for tolerance and creativity, by celebrating our inherent contradictions.  One moment I am carefully rendering the turn of a cheek bone in space, the next I am vandalizing it.  One moment I am paying homage to purity of Sufi mysticism from the East, the next I am coveting cash from the West. One moment my body is a temple, the next I am riding dirt bikes over the pews.  Dance and Painting is how I best able to split the moment and climb through to something outside of myself.  


Previous Exhibitions

  • 2020 “From Tehran with Love”; a group show with Magic of Persia, Los Angeles

  • 2018 “No Man’s Land”; Solo show at Asia House, London

  • 2015 Armory Show NY

  • 2014 “Palimpsest” Edge of Arabia (upcoming Sept 4-Oct 2)

  • London 2013 “Farce” Aun Gallery

  • Tehran 2011 “Safar” Aun GalleryTehran 2008 Commissioned by Jerwood Gallery to paint Akram Khan. The nine piece panel is now part of the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery London

  • 2007 “Embodiment” group show- Signal Gallery, Hoxton

  • London 2007 BP Award- National Portrait Gallery

  • London and Edinburgh 2006 BP Award- National Portrait Gallery

  • London and Aberdeen 2005 BP Travel Award Show

  • National Portrait Gallery, London and Edinburgh 2004

  • Winner of BP Travel Award, National Portrait Gallery

  • London 2003 Royal Society of Portrait Painters

  • Mall Galleries, London 2003 Quod Art Gallery, Brighton

  • 2002 Chelsea Art Fair

  • London 2001 Medici Gallery, Piccadilly

  • London 2001 Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London

  • 2001 Royal West of England Academy, 3rd Place, Bristol

  • 2000 BP Award – National Portrait Gallery, London and Aberdeen

  • 1999 BP Award – National Portrait Gallery, London and Aberdeen

  • 1998 BP Award – National Portrait Gallery, London and Aberdeen

  • 1998 Exhibition of Portraits at Blue Gallery, Chelsea

  • 1997 Degree Show, Slade School of Fine Art

  • 1993 Annual Boit Competition, Museum School, Boston, Mass.

Education / Awards

Education M.F.A. Slade School of Fine Art, London 1997 B.F.A. Museum School of Fine Arts, Boston 1994