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6/11/2002

Nader Ahriman

asprey jacques, London

The Void Between Saturn and the Fixed Stars

'Nader's mongrel contraptions, seemingly built from the detritus of some post apocalyptic hardware store, inhabit an ambiguous space in which imaginary architectures are rendered in a style of hard edged abstraction. His paintings lack the slickness of a techno-inflected world informed by the computer age; rather they bear the imprint of earlier Surrealist evocations of a sci-fi future that never was'.
Douglas Fogle, 'Painting at the Edge of the World', Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2001.

aspreyjacques is pleased to present Nader Ahriman's first solo show in London. Nader, who lives and works in Berlin, was born in Iran (1964). The exhibition coincides with a month long series of events and exhibitions supported by the Iranian Heritage Foundation including Artangel's exhibition 'The Logic of the Birds' (http://www.artangel.org.uk).

At aspreyjacques, Nader will present eight large-scale paintings which involve chance encounters' between Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772, scientist and spiritual explorer), Percy Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957, artist and writer) and William Blake (1757-1827, writer, philosopher and artist). Blake is a major influence in Nader's current body of work, particularly Blake's poem 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' (c.1790). Nader, like Blake, works within the framework of his own visual vocab-ulary often crossing geometric abstraction and architecture or morphing organic and mechanical forms to create a unique vision of reality.

In one of the new paintings, Nader presents Blake in an act of defiance offering Swedenborg his rear. Having once been his most vociferous supporter, Swedenborg, who is depicted as half goat, half primitive machine, stands defeated, defecating in despair. In another canvas, Lewis and Blake come face to face despite the fact these men lived over a century apart. Nader places them in chance encounters to explore the possibilities of what might have been had these ideological revolutionaries ever met.

Nader has previously exhibited at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London in 'Examining Pictures' (1999) co-curated by Francesco Bonami and Judith Nesbitt and more recently in 'Painting at the Edge of the World' at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2001). He will have a solo exhibition at the Kunstverein Freiburg in April 2003, for which a catalogue will be published.

private view: thursday, 7 november, 6 - 8

next exhibitions:
Antje Majewski, 10 january - 15 february
Candice Breitz, 21 february - 5 april

art fairs: Artissima, Turin, 14 - 17 november / Art Basel Miami Beach, 5 - 8 december

For further information and images please contact Alison Abrams on 0207 287 7675

gallery hours: tuesday - friday, 10 - 6, and saturday, 10 - 1

asprey jacques
4 Clifford Street
London

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