Remain

Raha Raissnia - Remain

Galería Marta Cervera is pleased to announce Remain, a personal exhibition by the artist Raha Raissnia, which will open to the public next Thursday, September 10th, in a continuous opening from 12:00 to 22:00, coinciding with Apertura Madrid 2020 Opening of Doctor Fourquet Street. The exhibition will take place at Calle Valencia 28, Madrid, until October 31st, 2020.

Raha Raissnia's exhibition Remain will showcase a loop 16mm film installation titled Galvanoscope 1, a series of oil paintings on wood panels, along with a loop 35 mm slide installation titled Cryptocrystalline. Driven by a desire to break away from the conventional cinematic screen, Raissnia’s loop film installations are projected through semi-transparent, hanging mobile and double screens to create architectural installations that both articulate the light as it moves through space and diffuse it through layers of screens and shadows. All the works in this exhibition are related through their process of fusing analogue with digital, the hand painted with the photographic. The architectonic forms and passages in Raissnia’s diaphanous imagery are charged with notions that relate to human history and existence. The disparity between the traditional, modern, and the qualities hinting at the future create a sense of timelessness that will stand at the core of this exhibition.

Cryptocrystalline: (crypto + crystalline) is defined in mineralogy as having a crystalline structure consisting, however, of crystals too small to be seen even with a microscope. The imagery of the 35mm slides used in this installation were initially made in the computer by using raw materials that were all made by hand. They consisted of ink painting made directly on clear film, segments of drawings and photographs (both found and taken by the artist) that got scanned and manipulated digitally before getting printed onto film. For many years she did this process by meticulously cutting, layering and painting pieces of film together by hand. Here the use of computer has allowed her a different kind of freedom that adds to the permutational manner of working that is vital in her process.

The film in the Galvanoscope 1 installation was made through a similar process. This formal approach relates the two works together. The several translations that took place between film (analog) and digital process in making both works resulted in various unexpected subtle tones and textures that are important to the artist. Another formal aspect that relates these two works and with the paintings in the show are the focus on architectonic forms and passages. While Galvanoscope 1 is very specific to Islamic architecture with its known history and tradition the other works are inspired by it, both in regard to form and content. Abstraction and indeterminacy through spatial play with forms allow for thoughts and visions that transcend the empirical reading of the world. There is an active spatial play in all the works that is diaphanous and charged with notions that relate to human history and existence. Through the fusion of architectural, organic and scientific forms Raissnia has alluded to thoughts, feelings and ways of mankind which can only and always carry its ancient roots and move into the future.

Raha Raissnia (1968, Tehran, Iran) received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from Pratt Institute. Raissnia presented a solo exhibition of new work in 2017 at the Drawing Center (New York). In 2016, her work was the subject of a solo presentation at the Museum of Modern Art (New York). In 2015, Raissnia’s work was included in All the World's Futures, 56th International Art Exhibition, curated by Okwui Enwezor, Venice Biennale. Recent solo shows were held at Miguel Abreu Gallery (New York), The Drawing Center (New York), Ab/Anbar Gallery (Tehran), Galeria Marta Cervera (Madrid), Galerie Xippas (Paris), and the Isfahan Museum of Contemporary Art (Isfahan, Iran). Raissnia’s projection- performances in collaboration with notable musicians such as Panagiotis Mavridis, Aki Onda, John Zorn and Dalius Naujo have been held at the Whitney Museum of American Art (NY), REDCAT (Los Angeles), Kunsthal Rotterdam, Arnolfini – Center for Contemporary Arts (UK), the Drawing Center (NY), Issue Project Room (NY), and the Emily Harvey Foundation (NY), among others.