Brooklyn-based artist Abdolreza Aminlari’s solo exhibition is a specially designed installation in shades of blue featuring five large works on paper and a series consisting of smaller works that are available based on the wages equivalent to one day’s work. Exploring the intersection of contemporary craft and social practice, Aminlari employs geometry and abstraction with a rhythmic intensity matched by ideas surrounding the transnational dissemination and intercultural reception of embroidery, the color blue, and labor. Inspired by a trip to Porto, Portugal, Aminlari discovered the unmistakable Persian influences of blue, the interlocking curvilinear, geometric, and floral motifs used in the Azulejo tiles (painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, restaurants, bars, etc.). Encountering the tiles Aminlari felt a full-circle-effect transcendent of time and place. Returning to New York, Aminlari’s multi-layered process began with coats of blue gouache, followed by meticulously hand-stitching geometric shapes, in colored and 24-karat gold vintage Japanese metallic threads, onto the painted paper. The works are matted and framed in blues and hang in a blue gallery. Abdolreza Aminlara (b. 1979, Tehran) lives and works in Brooklyn. His work has been nationally and Internationally exhibited, including Andrew Rafacz, Chicago; Taymour Grahne, New York; Abrons Art Center, New York; KVKM Kunstverein Cologne; Cuadro Gallery, Dubai; Longhouse Projects, New York; Jackie Klempay, Brooklyn; Black Ball Projects, Brooklyn; and the Derfner Judaica Museum, New York.
New York City, NY; NYC