Dragan Gelev scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
nature of your relationship with your audience? As the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces to street and especially to online platforms — as Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gelev.art — increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? Dragan Gelev: Well, I honestly don't think of myself as an established artist. That is not my priority in life. The only thing I'm focused on and for me it’s fun, is to create art or do painting. So far, I have had a small number of exhibitions due to the pandemic that has gripped the world, and I am not in a hurry about this issue. I want the artworks that I create for them to mature and decide for themselves that now is the moment when they should start living their lives in the eyes of other viewers. On the other hand, one of the good things about today and the Internet is that through it you have the opportunity to present yourself to the world and to present to it what you create. But I have to emphasize to you, when we are talking about the artworks and the relationship with the audience, I personally never create an artwork expecting or guessing from the position that the audience will like it. My dialogue and focus are only with the concrete artwork, and behind what I have created so far, I stand upright, not afraid of criticism nor from good words. Because, scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Dragan Gelev Land
metaphorically speaking, you can “bribe” the audience (if you know, for example, what it often wants to see), but then you cast a shadow on your own expression that in my mind is much more important to me. We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Dragan. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Dragan Gelev: The pleasure is mutual. Every collaboration and connection with people from the world of art is especially dear to my soul. I hope for more joint work in the future and until then we continue on the path of creativity and art. Dragan Gelev scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
Hello Nasim and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit http://www.nasimnourian.com in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You discovered your creative side since early age: are there any experiences that did particularly influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum address the direction of your current artistic research? Capturing the light and the darkness in, around and within a subject…a face, a body, an object fascinates me. My inspiration is the light that surrounds even the darkest of spaces. This elusive quality of light transforms everything around us and it could be so fleeting, so transient. I see the vast expanse of the sky, the solidity of the earth, the stories behind the eyes and I’m compelled to let it guide me through a process that I call my creative expression. My goal as an artist is to inspire those who see my work to discover this magical light in and around themselves. Although I discovered my creative side when I was just a tiny being, it fizzled out as I entered my adolescent and early adulthood. Growing up, my parents considered art and humanities to be just a hobby, something that you did to entertain yourself. I was taught that one was not to pursue a dream of being an ‘artist’ and instead one should focus on developing a ‘serious’ career. So for many years, I abandoned creating art. Until just a few years ago where I happened to take a fine art class at a local community center and this love of artistic creation was rekindled. Since the early days of returning to art, I have exhibited my work at several galleries and private exhibits in Aspen, Colorado and Phoenix, Arizona. My work was selected as one of 30 women artists to be displayed at the Phoenix Capitol Museum for the “In Celebration of Women” 2022. I have exhibited at the Herberger Art Gallery, the Found:Re contemporary Gallery and a solo exhibit at the Arizona State Vault Gallery for emerging artists and more. I will be the guest curator at the Herberger Art Gallery in February 2023 for a theme that I selected and will jury “Where Music Lives” and currently working on a project for an upcoming solo exhibit in October 2023. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Nasim Nourian
Nasim Nourian: First, I’m grateful for this opportunity to share my art with your readers. As an artist, there is nothing more gratifying than being able to openly, freely and authentically show my creative work. Moreover, as an Iranian-American artist, this sense of freedom in expression is even more intensified. I’m a first generation Iranian-American who flew like thousands of others after the Islamic revolution. As an unwelcome immigrant in the US and during a tumultuous relations between my birth country and my newly adopted country, I learned to put my head down and not raise attention to myself. When asked about my nationality, I pretended that I was from another country just so I wouldn’t be held in contempt. This fear of not-belonging and the deep desire to just fit in, were the perfect cocktail of emotions to lose my authentic voice. So for many years, I could not even call myself an artist. I did not believe that I was good enough or brave enough to share my art with others. If one were to see me today and believe that I have always known myself to be a brave and influential artist, they would be sadly mistaken. The long haul of my evolution as an artist, has been influenced and impacted by the encouragement and support of many teachers and family members. And for this I’m mostly in gratitude. As for the evolution in my work from then to current, I see a deeper growth and expansion in allowing my work to unravel. Whereas I used to plan and re-plan meticulously, now I allow the work to come through me naturally and organically. And this feeling of organic ease is the foundation on which my current work is building on. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape — and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our attention for the way it explores the tension between light and darkness, inviting the viewers to capture the living aspects that pervades our surroundings. When walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us something about the genesis of Reflections? In particular, how important is intuition in your creative process? Nasim Nourian: Oh wow! Intuition is the key in my creative process and thank you for recognizing that. This is exactly the organic feel and sense that I was just speaking of. You may call it a state of flow just like a dancer or a musician may experience. It almost feels as if I have become one with the painting. I am so ingrained in it. It moves with every brush stroke. I feel it as an extension of my deeper self. So YES! Intuition is what drives me and my work. Reflections was my artistic announcement for recognizing my work to be everexpanding. Until Reflections, most of my pieces were planned, studied and executed. I created Reflections (one of my Nasim Nourian scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
largest pieces) to dance with spaciousness and brilliance. To dance is to balance. Reflections was the balance to let intuition teeter me toward the state of flow. Your works are carefully balanced in order to capture the quality of light, through careful choice of tones, that provide your works with visual fluidity and sense of movement: how do you structure your process in order to achieve such brilliant results? In particular, how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your artworks? Nasim Nourian: Light has a magical elusive quality to me. It highlights flaws whilst celebrating reality. Without light, darkness empowers the unknown. And as human beings, the unknown is agonizing. We all have a reaction to uncertainty. Some try to change it and others look the other way. So returning to this concept of dance, the balance between the seen and the unseen, the known and the unknown, the love and the intolerable is the process through which I create a sense of movement and fluidity. C onsider Human Spirit as an example! The hidden and the unknown are more than just shadows. We all ‘know’ and have seen images of the baby inside, but are the physiological experiences the whole and entirety of the experience of child-bearing? Or another one of my favorite pieces, What Unites Us, I created that piece in June 2020, in the height of pandemic as we all grappled with uncertainty and the disquiet caused by the virus. As I was scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Reflections
working through my own psychological processes to deal with isolation in quarantine, I felt a sense of necessity to acknowledge our connection as human beings even if we could not embrace, hold hands or even visit each other. Nasim Nourian scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
You are a versatile artist and your production encompasses both real and abstract subjects, and seems to unveil the elusive bond the real and the imagined. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us, how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production? Nasim Nourian: Alice Neel, the American portrait artist, said, “Art is two things: a scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition what unites us
Nasim Nourian scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land search for a road and a search for freedom.” I feel that Peter Doig’s remark has the same connotation. The road is the realism, the solidity and certainty of what we think something out there in front of us looks like and the freedom is the unlimited ideas and concepts in our head. I absolutely think reality and imagination are two sides of the same coin in my artistic production and after all isn’t all in our imagination? As you have remarked in your artist's statement, your goal is to inspire those who see your work to discover the light of the world around them. Is that important Human Spirit Ties that bind
Perfect Union
for you to invite the viewers to see ordinary experience under a new light, walking them to appreciate beauty in everyday life? In particular, how does everyday life's experience fuel your creativity? scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition As Above So Below
Nasim Nourian: I absolutely love this questions. My dad who is not particularly skilled in drawing often looks at my abstract pieces and asks me for explanations. On the other hand, he is fascinated by my everyday life’s paintings, Nasim Nourian scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Blue
Peaks of hope
portraits, flowers and landscapes. In these, he doesn’t ask for explanation, he looks and quietly nods his head. He proudly has a few of my landscape and flower paintings displayed in his home. It is a privilege for me to invite the viewers, be it my family members or strangers, to see our world under a new light. I don’t take this responsibility lightly. I feel that everyday experiences, faces, people, nature, are constantly showcasing themselves to be my muse. The good, the bad and the ugly all present themselves in visual cuing so I can create a new work. The signature at the bottom of my emails is a simple “Stay Amazed.” I feel that all of us are creative artists within, once we continue to stay amazed and see, truly see everything especially ordinary experiences. Nasim Nourian scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Where music Lives
In your artistic production you also address socio political issues, as in Black lives matter: how do you consider the role of artists in our globalized and unstable society? In particular, do you think that the work of artists and creative activists could help to create a cultural democracy able to bring a deeper respect for human rights to every aspect of civil society? Nasim Nourian: Art moves my heart, body and soul. I am emotionally moved when I’m creating an artwork and I’m communicating those emotions with others through my art which is the voice to my soul. It has happened that an art work has resulted in contradictory or confusing messages, or that the personal interpretations of the viewer based on their personal experiences has had different effects, either more subtle or more dramatic. So I feel the activism through art can be hard to measure in terms of meaningful and concrete action plans that will lead to actual socio-political change. I also believe that brave activists who have created meaningful change through awareness, have done so with a never-ending determination and dedication. A singleminded focus on a single issue that one is passionate about is required for activism. Otherwise, our ‘passion’ fizzles out and we move on to the next thing. This is, unfortunately, so clearly apparent in Instagram or Facebook ‘activists.’ With all good intentions, everyone is herded into speaking out about a cause and then just as easily they hop onto another cause. So I scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Nasim Nourian Land
would be super careful about calling myself a creative activist. On the other hand, I do believe that social change doesn’t just happen haphazardly, it happens because people make it happen. If an artwork can be powerful enough to scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
raise an emotional response in even one person, then perhaps I was able to be an agent of change. And an agent of change can be a powerful catalyst in bringing awareness to social injustice. Your portraits — as the interesting Carolina — are marked out with such powerful expressivity: what’s your philosophy on the nature of portraiture? In particular, how do you select the people that you decide to include in your artworks? Nasim Nourian: I am very much influenced by portrait artists like Alice Neel, Steven Assael and Ivan Albright. Like Neel, I feel that “people come first.” I am mostly interested in capturing a moment of human expression in my portraiture. At times I take the photo myself and other times I get inspiration from a photo that someone else took. But at all times, I long for the viewers to see the emotions in my portrait work. Through essential sense of geometry, in Winter is Coming and Peaks of hope you developed such unique visual vocabulary able to trigger the onlookers' perception process: how important is for you to address the viewers to elaborate personal interpretations? Moreover, how open would you like your works to be understood? Nasim Nourian: Winter is Coming and Peaks of Hope are two dichotomous pieces, not in the sense of two distinct aspects being presented on one painting, but in terms of two different states of manifested awareness. Both paintings are Nasim Nourian scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
bold, contrasting with an uneven approach to symmetry. Winter is Coming is an indicative statement of concern or distress while Peaks of Hope is that of optimism and light…two different states of consciousness that could be interpreted differently and can be easily left to personal interpretations. Your work was recently selected as one of 30 women artists to be displayed at the Phoenix Capitol Museum for the “In Celebration of Women'', and over the years you have exhibited in several galleries and private exhibits in Aspen, Colorado and Phoenix, Arizona: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? As the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to online platforms — as Instagram — increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? Nasim Nourian: Taking part in the “In Celebration of Women” exhibit was truly an honor and a significant moment in my life as an artist that I’ll forever cherish. In my opinion, nothing beats the ability to see (actually look) at an artwork close up. To see the textures and the movement and the grandiose of an artwork and stare at every part of it, from different angles, for however long you need is so fulfilling and satisfying…like having a delicious meal especially made for you. But not everyone has the opportunity or the wherewithal to get to a gallery or a museum. For that reason, digital art or online platforms are tremendous methods of reaching our to new audiences. I have been able to reach other artists and art lovers through my instagram page https://www.instagram.com/nsm_fineart and other online art spaces such as Contemporary Art Room and Grey Cube. We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Nasim. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Nasim Nourian: I too have enjoyed this conversation and thank you for providing this awesome platform for artists like me from all over the globe. I am currently working on a project for my upcoming solo exhibit in 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona. This production with have a more sociocultural undertones with focus on love, acceptance and fairness in relationships between individuals and our communities. Prior to that, I’ll be curating for an exhibit themed ‘Where Music Lives.’ I selected this theme to give interested artists the challenge to explore forms of expression celebrating music. I thank you! scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
Hello Marloes and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.marloesaben.nl in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and you hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts, that you received from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague: how do these formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum address the direction of your current artistic research? Marloes Aben: Thank you very much! At the Royal Academy of Art I learned to explore the space of idea and execution, to reflect on my work, to perfect through iteration and to learn how to Wandering in the world with my eyes wide open inspires me to start the process of creating my work. During this process I reflect on contrasts like flat versus spatial, universal versus unique, shapes versus residual shapes. These tensions interest and challenge me. Focusing carefully on my subject allows me to create my own visions of what I see around me in my paintings and drawings. In my opinion the most beautiful and interesting things can be found right in front of you on a daily basis. I like to imagine and cherish this in my creations. I gladly invite you to take a closer look. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Marloes Aben
Ode aan de natuur (ode to nature) Construction with chalk on cardboard 40x40x210 cm
have a ‘dialogue’ with my work and at what point in the process to do this. I learned to get started with an open mind about my own restrictions and to reflect critically later. I developed an investigative, explorative and critical attitude to exploring an idea and to the use of materials and then iterate further to get to the core of the idea without knowing the end point yet. For me a fixed endpoint is not a good starting point, it is all about the process of exploration, like peeling an onion. The feedback from the teachers helped to form my own view on the process and the work I was doing. I try to embrace all the beautiful things I encounter in my process and that gives my work layering. I learned to capture the essence and leave the noise out. After taking a bit of distance and time to assess my unfinished work together with my teacher we would either decide what needed to be done, or he would say: “Sometimes you can finish your work by just looking at it...” The work was done. At that moment I found it just a funny quote, but it turned out to be quite valuable to me... in my current artistic research I still have this attitude and I still think about and discuss the core of the work. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape — and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our attention for the way it explores the relationship between details and the image as a whole within theme of landscape, with such unconventional aesthetics. When walking our readers through the genesis of your works, would you tell us something about your usual setup and process? In particular, what role does intuition play in your process? Marloes Aben: Intuition plays an important role in my work. Often I find out during the process why I am doing it. During the LandEscape series I made during Covid Lockdown I noticed I had the urge to go outside and experience nature. Don’t just walk by, walk through, but really be here and think about it. Trees and woods really appealed to me. I have had a fascination with trees for a long time, I am drawn to their shape, their character and their comfort. I used photography to capture what I saw, on the spot and back in the workshop I would select what to use for drawing. When making the drawing I do not change the scene as such, I project the photograph I made and I hold onto that, it takes me right back to the woods so to speak. From there I Marloes Aben scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
have the freedom to explore the details of the scene and my fascination with it. The white is as much part of the drawing as the black. An edge on the side of the paper remained white because of the projection. At first it was just there, during the process I decided not to cut off the strip, a conscious choice, the strip takes the romance out of it, which works for me. So the strip became part of the work. Your works feature such captivating Black and White: would you tell us something about your aesthetic choice about it? What does fascinate you of Black and White? Marloes Aben: I actually wanted it to be big. If felt logical to draw in conte chalk in black and white. I discovered this way it did not need any colour. The black and white makes it even more about form, contrast and structure. Heather was the first piece I made. Colour was just not the first thing that fascinated me at this point. So in that case it would just distract me. The other thing about black and white is that you instantly know it is not representing real life. Black and white is strong and is always an edit. It keeps you aware that you are not looking at the real thing. The tension between this and the projected and recognizable scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Marloes Aben scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Heather. chalk on cardboard 100x140 cm
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Trees. chalk on cardboard 100x140 cm
Marloes Aben scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land actual place appealed to me. Like it’s real and not real at the same time. The second piece I made was Trees. I discovered that the feeling of this piece was totally different, like they have their own identity. That made me exited to make more. With their essential quality on the visual aspect, your works capture the essence of place: how doyour memories and your everyday life's experience and your memories fuel your creative process? Marloes Aben: I take a lot of photos that I use for my work. Sometimes it comes back much later and sometimes right away. I wish I could use my eyes as a camera! To keep the moment, but that may actually be what you do while making a piece of art, to capture the experience of what you saw. It’s a combination of looking, thinking and feeling. Sometimes I look out for something specifically, like in the Nature Series and sometimes I just notice something on the street, in magazines, on the internet. These are the reflection of my memories and everyday life’s experiences. The works I make belong to a certain time and place for me, if I were to live in India or Normandy for instance, I believe my work would
landschap rond met avondrood, (round landscape with afterglow) mixed media. 40 cm
change. But it is always something that touches me, it touches a nerve. We highly appreciate the way you draw from real places to address your audience to dive into the dreamlike dimension, helping them to discover its connections with ordinary life. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us, how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production? Marloes Aben: I see that as an interplay between the two and it is perhaps the essence of why I make art. Art gives room for imagination. Real life is the reason for that, what I see around me is the reason for that. It helps me look at the ordinary or real world with a wider view. At the same time, this wider view helps me understand real life better. The world in my head is perhaps just as essential as the world outside and I find the combination fascinating You are a versatile artist and many of your artworks, as the interesting Rood jasjemet hoofd and zwart jasje met hoofd, convey such stimulating visual scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition 365 drawing 27 may. marker on cardboard 14,8
Marloes Aben scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land x21 cm text Fieke Ypma Een heel, heel vol leven met een heel, heel leeg gevoel (a full full life feeling so empty)
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
ambivalence, able to walk the viewers to develop personal visual grammars. In this sense, we daresay that your artistic production aims to urge the spectatorship to a participative effort, to realize their own interpretation. Austrian Art historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the viewers to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the illusion: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood? Marloes Aben: I am in dialogue with the work until it is finished, then it enters into a dialogue with the viewer, or not. If the viewer is stimulated by thinking about the work, that is not necessarily what I have put into the work. It is always interesting what the angle of someone looking at it is. That does not have to correspond with my own intention. It can also inspire me. The jackets come from a fascination for the detailed clothing from costume dramas etc. in contrast with the person in them who conveys a feeling and not a show. Someone bought zwart jasje met hoofd because he identified with how the head feels, I scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Marloes Aben Land
Wolf in woods. chalk on cardboard 70x100 cm
Portret serie females. graphite pencil on cardboard 50x70 cm
liked that again. Meticolously refinished in their details, your artworks have struck us for the way you sapiently conveyed rigorous sense of geometry with such unique Marloes Aben scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Females #2. graphite pencil on cardboard 33,5x36 cm
Oh oh Den Haag, huisje in groen, Arendsdorp. (Oh The Hague, cabin in green Arendsdorp) chalk on cardboard 100x140 cm
refined aesthetics: how do you consider the role of details within your artistic practice? Marloes Aben: Attentiveness is especially important to me. Looking attentively makes so much more visible, both in the whole and in the details. Once I am aware of that I can use it, choose what matters, what is redundant, what needs more emphasis. I do not commit myself to including all the details, I prefer a somewhat loose approach to my work. That's how I create my own details. That is where intuition comes in again. Charles Eames said: “The details are not the details. They make the design.” That feels right to me. We would like to mention your Portrait series, as well. With their delicate narrative drive, they challenge the viewers' perception, inviting them to switch between a number of feelings and interpretations about the mood of the subjects: what’s your philosophy on the nature of portraiture? In particular, how do you select the people that you decide to include in your artworks? Marloes Aben: The feeling it expresses attracts me, for example because of a specific look that interests me, that fascinates me or that I can identify with. It scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Marloes Aben scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Shaped wood rood jasje (red jacket) mixed media. 54x48 cm
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Shaped wood, grijs jasje (grey jacket) mixed media. 59x47 cm