Staged and Documentary Photographs by Distinguished Young Female Iranian Artists: Shadi Ghadirian and Tahmineh Monzavi

http://robertkleingallery.com/index.php

SHADI GHADIRIAN (Iranian, b. 1974) [image shown] and TAHMINEH MONZAVI (Iranian, b. 1988) belong to Iran's newest generation of photographers, artists who studied under BAHMAN JALALI, Iran's foremost photographer and photography professor, who died suddenly in 2010. Selections from Ghadirian's series Be Colorful, 2002, and Qajar, 1998, will be on display at ROBERT KLEIN GALLERY (38 Newbury St); work from three of Monzavi's projects -- Tina, 2010-2012; Brides of Mokhber al-Dowleh, 2012; and Mirrors of Mashhad Bazar -- will be exhibited at ROBERT KLEIN GALLERY @ ARS LIBRI (500 Harrison Ave). Both shows will run from February 6 through March 28, 2015. A First Friday opening reception will take place at Robert Klein Gallery @ Ars Libri on Friday, February 6, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. The event is free and open to the public. Ghadirian uses photography to explore contemporary life in post-revolutionary Iranian society, focusing especially on the role of women in her generation. In two particular series, Be Colorful and Qajar, Ghadirian uses portraiture to examine the ever-shifting standards of female appearance in Iran. Women in brightly colored veils are shielded from the viewer by a spackled layer of paint. Women in traditional nineteenth century clothes pose with banned items from the twentieth century, like Pepsi cans and mountain bikes. On display together at Robert Klein Gallery, the two series play off each other nicely. Ghadirian's work was included in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, exhibition She Who Tells A Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World and is in the collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; and Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom, among others. Monzavi began working as a documentary photographer in 2005, when she was 17. Since then, she has earned the trust of subjects who largely keep to themselves: drug addicts, the homeless, and a transgender woman, Tina, whom she met at a shelter in Tehran and then photographed for two years. Monzavi has been reprimanded by the authorities for her work, but she continues to explore difficult themes in earnest. The three black and white series on display at Robert Klein Gallery @ Ars Libri showcase the depth and breadth of Monzavi's talent. Previously, her work has been exhibited in Germany, Iran, Georgia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.