The Third Line is pleased to participate in this year’s edition of Frieze New York with a solo presentation by Farhad Moshiri. The artist returns with a new body of intricate hand-made embroidery pieces, including an additional work from 2014 that has never been shown before. Farhad continues to be an iconic artist working with neo-pop iconography, merging the timeconsuming traditional craft of embellishment with popular culture.
Farhad’s embroidery pieces originate from his interest for implementing Iranian ornamentation into his practice. The artist has included a variety of media in his oeuvre such as gold leaf and crystals, to produce images from western popular culture. By using these aspects of lowbrow culture in combination with trivial imagery, Farhad shows an ironic take on art history. The artist beautifies otherwise common scenes, as he does in Jump Roper, 2017 and Girl Tuning Violin, 2017.
Self-portrait (The Painter), 2017 is a signature work by the artist, as he includes one depiction of himself in every show. The artist habitually portrays himself as a child, reminding us to hold on to our ingenuous ways and to stay young at heart. The style of the piece is reminiscent of the simplicity of comic books; a deliberate choice as Farhad’s aims at creating an image with just a few lines. The artist forfeits the subtle manipulations of the surface that painting offers and reduces the palette to the limited choice of a black and a yellow bead.
Farhad is constantly looking to cause friction; be it through the integration of different cultures, or be it through the combination of medium and imagery. The artist tests his audience, gauging what meaning they will attribute to his vivacious oeuvre: ‘I love a good story, but I can’t write books or shoot films, so I create scenes that allow entire stories to unravel in the viewer’s mind.’
