Tamina Amadyar at Eleni Koroneou Gallery

Artist: Tamina Amadyar

Exhibition title: haft paykar

Venue: Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens, Greece

Date: May 5 – July 16, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens

Eleni Koroneou Gallery is pleased to present the second solo show of Berlin based Tamina Amadyar, titled haft paykar.

The title of the show derives from the homonymous book by the Persian medieval poet and novelist Nizami and can be translated into seven portraits or seven images, seven stories or seven beauties. The number seven has a very important status in Persian mythology. The story of the book is about a king and the visits of seven beauties -one on each day of the week- assigned to seven different colors. Color plays a significant role in the story and is used to represent the seven stages of love of the Sufi tradition. Amadyar was inspired by the miniatures of this book and the way they represented Persian architecture and culture.

Amadyar’s paintings are dominated by color and shape. In her work she often translates images and memories from her surroundings and landscapes into abstracted compositions. Through this process, she reduces those into simple shapes, allowing the viewers to evoke their own personal associations. One color borders, touches or overlaps the other, and new forms, shapes and shades are created. The intensity of the colors is obtained by pigment that the artist mixes with rabbit-skin glue. While the color fields seem flat and without structure, with a closer look one observes drawings that look like engravings or writing in color, indicating other curvy and architectural forms that float and collude on her seemingly bare canvases.

Also part of the show is a new series of watercolors portraying rice bags, an object drawn from her everyday life that has always been very present. Similar to the miniatures found in the haft paykar book, the rice bags depict a combination of pictures and writing, though the use of watercolors gives these depictions a more abstract aspect that modifies the dynamics of the image itself.

Tamina Amadyar was born 1989 in Kabul (Afghanistan) and studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, by professor and artist Tal R. She lives and works in Berlin. Selected solo exhibitions include: Sound of the city, Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe (2021); Making Waves, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens (2020); The Big Dipper, Kewenig, Palma de Mallorca, Spain (2019); It’s a match, Oldenburger Kunstverein, Oldenburger (2019); BIG BLUE SKY, Kunstverein Reutlingen, Reutlingen (2018); 10,000 hours, Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin (2017); She has also taken part in group exhibitions, such as: Ars Viva Preis 2022, KAI Art Center, Tallinn (2022) και Brücke Museum, Berlin (2021); Five On Paper, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens (2021); Adrian, George, Peter, Sofia, Tamina., P420 Art Gallery, Bologna (2019); last dance, Autocenter at the KINDL, Berlin (2018); Kunst als Spiegel der Gesellschaft – Werke aus der Sammlung der DekaBank, Schloss Neuhardenberg, Neuhardenberg, Germany (2017); Memories of an elephant, Kunsthaus Essen, Essen (2017); Monday is a day between Sunday and Tuesday, Tanya Leighton, Berlin (2017); You’re just too good to be true, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (2015). She has received the followig grants: Hooper Projetcs stipend (2015), Helmut E. Kreutzer Stiftung stipend (2013-2014), the Rölfs Partner stipend (2013) and a stipend of Heinrich-Böll Stiftung e.V. (2009-2015). In 2016 she was included in the Forbes list „30 under 30“ and in 2021 she was the recipient of the Ars Viva Preis 2022.