Hamzianpour and Kia presents Iranian artist and filmmaker Mania Akbari in The Night. The gallery hosted an opening art party on August 12, 2023. Not to worry if you missed the opening, as the exhibition runs throughAugust 26, 2023.
Mania Akbari The Night
This marks Akbari’s first solo exhibition in the United States. This intensely personal show presents fourteen variously allegorical and documentary photographic images. These images center on the relationship between trauma, threat, the self, and the body. The works on exhibit exemplify a consistent focus of much of Akbari’s creative work and are a powerful, raw, and demotically beautiful manifestation of art. They are reflective and protean space in which the self can shape and express itself in the face of adversity and change.
Mania Akbari
Mania Akbari (b. Tehran, 1974) is an internationally acclaimed intersectional feminist artist and filmmaker who gained early recognition in the Iranian underground art scene, seeking freedom beyond censorship. During the digital cinema revolution in Iran, she transitioned from a painting career to the camera as a mode of storytelling.
Akbari delves into the webs of body politics by documenting personal narratives through the female gaze. Thus it becomes a form of empowerment, encouraging critical reflection on bodily oppression and suffering. Concerned with the socio-political traumatization of female-identifying bodies, Akbari transforms lived experience into an act of resistance. She does this by uncovering hidden historical as well as cultural memory. She also examines the trans-generational transmission of trauma. Weaving through the relationship between the camera and the body, Akbari identifies the body as a metaphor. Therefore used as a political message with a revolutionary capacity against the patriarchal status quo. Led by a therapeutic approach, Akbari’s practice is open collaborative and participatory.
Hamzianpour & Kia
Hamzianpour & Kia is a Los Angeles-based gallery supporting emerging and mid-career artists with a focus on the Middle East as well as the Iranian diaspora. The gallery regularly presents the debut US exhibitions of internationally recognized artists. Additionally the artists are from other countries and cultures underrepresented in dominant contemporary art spheres.
With a focus on multidisciplinary artists working in a variety of media, the program also fosters international discourse directed toward a Los Angeles audience. Exhibiting artists frequently present new work made exhibition-specific with these contexts and audiences in mind.
Hamzianpour & Kia opened in 2022 by Narges Hamzianpour and Farid Kia. The duo has over fifteen years of professional experience working in galleries and institutions across Dubai, Tehran, New York, and Los Angeles. Hamzianpour & Kia is located in the iconic art deco building on the Northeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard and La Brea Avenue. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 am to 6 pm. The gallery can be accessed on weekdays via Wilshire Avenue and on Saturdays via Carling Way (off S La Brea).
On view: August 12 – August 26, 2023
What: The Night, Mania Akbari
Where: Hamzianpour & Kia Gallery, 5225 Wilshire Blvd #212, LA, 90036
When: Running through August 26, 2023
Website: https://www.hamzianpourandkia.com
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