Ali Banisadr

Ali Banisadr: The Alchemist

Ali Banisadr: The Alchemist, organized by the Katonah Museum of Art, represents the first major museum survey of the Persian American contemporary artist Ali Banisadr. This exhibition encompasses nearly twenty years of the artist’s singular practice, from 2006 to the present, featuring painting, drawing, prints, and, for the first time, sculpture.

Banisadr’s practice demonstrates a careful balancing act between chaos and composure, and abstraction and representation. His expansive paintings are rich with figurative allusions rooted in autobiographical narratives, sonic recollection, invented stories, world history, collective memory, and mythology. The artist creates complex, turbulent worlds whose syncopated rhythms corral a diverse multitude of references from across art history—including Abstract Expressionism, Renaissance and Medieval art, pre-modern antiquities, and Persian miniatures—and references to our tempestuous times. Born in Tehran in 1976, Banisadr’s history growing up amidst war and political unrest in Iran, his migration to the U.S., and wide-ranging artistic influences exemplify the shifting definition of what it means to be an “American artist” today. Given the complexities of Iran’s modern history and the fractious relationship between Iran and the US, contemporary Persian artists are a distinct minority within the larger art canon.

Curated by Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe, KMA’s Executive Director, the exhibition includes nearly fifty of the artist’s most iconic works along with new sculptures that will be created for the exhibition and presented to the public for the first time. An exhibition catalogue will be distributed internationally by Yale University Press with critical essays by Yun Mapplethorpe; Bill Sherman, Director, The Warburg Institute, University of London; Gražina Subelytė, Associate Curator, Peggy Guggenheim Collection; a transcribed conversation with art historian Robert Storr; and a fully illustrated plate section. A comprehensive roster of public programs for adults and children will accompany the exhibit.