Thursday, May 10, 2007

Condoleeza Rice and Iranian Artists Meet in D.C.

Maryam Naghshineh (1) (10) (16)

This afternoon in Washington D.C. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will tour an exhibit of the Iranian art at the Meridian International Center titled "Wishes and Dreams: Iran's New Generation Emerges," the first Iranian art exhibit sponsored by the U.S. government. Rice hopes to meet with the artists and plans to speak about the administration's desire to reach out to the Iranian people. The exhibit will open to the public on Friday and runs through July 29.

Meridian International Center in partnership with the Tehran University Art Gallery has organized a new exhibition of Iranian art that focuses on young, up-and-coming artists currently at work in Iran. Entitled Wishes and Dreams: Iran’s New Generation Emerges, the exhibit features the work of 30 artists between the ages of 22 and 40. The show includes examples of some of the major trends in the vibrant contemporary art scene in Iran today, including abstraction, portraiture, minimalism, and installation and video art.

The 30 artists in this exhibition reflect Iran’s large young population—the generation of tomorrow. Their art is an example of what galleries in Tehran are actively showing in exhibitions that open weekly. Much of their art is about dreams of their own past and their historic heritage, its symbols and beliefs; it expresses their strong desire to preserve their past, as well as their concern for the future.

Wishes and Dreams is an update of a major 2001 Meridian exhibit from Iran, A Breeze from the Gardens of Persia, which showed the work of more established artists. Wishes and Dreams will be open at Meridian’s Cafritz Galleries in Washington from May 11 – July 29, 2007.

4 comments:

Frieda said...

Great news and wonderful gesture by the State department (even though some Iranians will interpret it with conspiracy minded way). However, it would be nice that they take the exhibition on the road so many people can see it.

Anonymous said...

I work at Meridian International Center, organizers of the exhibition, and I would just like to point out that the images of artwork appearing here, underneath the headline, "Condoleeza [sic] Rice and Iranian Artists Meet in D.C." are not by an artist exhibiting work in this particular exhibition. This placement is very misleading. For the record, Maryam Naghshineh's work, while very lovely, is not in any way a part of this exhibition. Images of the artwork in the show are available for press, but the author of this article did not request them.

Anonymous said...

The exhibition will travel, by the way. ~The person working at Meridian International Center.

SERENDIP said...

Anonymous: That was not my intention. I post pictures almost with every post and the post and the pictures are sometimes not related whatsoever. If I had a picture of one of the artist's works being exhibited, I would be more than glad to replace the picture.