LONDON - Made in Iran is a group show, providing a rare chance to see some of the most exciting work by young contemporary artists currently living and working in the modern Islamic Republic of Iran . Opening at Asia House on 23^rd June, the exhibition celebrates the vibrancy of this new generation of artists, revealing how they reconcile their artistic practice with working in a post-revolutionary landscape dominated by a complex political and religious hegemony . The artists featured in Made in Iran have developed their own visual practices in response to their experience of life in Tehran - a city where 70% of the population are under 35. On view though 4 July, 2009 at Asia House in London.

Working in diverse media from photography to digital drawing, the exhibition highlights how they and their peers attempt to circumvent authority by evolving their own strategies of self expression. Although life is full of constraints, there is a desire to live in Tehran and, through their art, create a bearable alternative whilst examining issues of tradition and modernity, the public and the private experience of daily life, nostalgia and belonging.

The contradiction between ancient traditions and new way of life can be seen in Nazgol Ansarinia’s digital drawings; in which she transforms traditional motifs and gives them an edge by working in scenes of contemporary life from Iran. Thus we are prompted to re-examine what at first glance appears to be a classic form of imagery but is in fact a visual representation of local Iranian life – men, women and children queuing, chatting, playing and driving.

Themes of self expression are also evident in Peyman Hooshmandzadeh’s ‘Windshields’ series of photographs. Displaying various people behind windshields together with the decals and car stickers Iranians use to customise their cars in order to express their personalities.

Behrouz Rae’s Gulliver series of postcards examines the contradiction between a desire for escape and that of belonging. Gathered during his travels or sent to him by his mother he frequently superimposes his own images into the frames.

Shirin Aliabadi’s works capture how Iranian women reshape their own images - transforming themselves as acts of cultural rebellion. Her photographic series features women with blond hair, coloured contact lenses, and surgical nose tape (Iran has the highest rhinoplasty rates in the world); and explores the cracks in monolithic societies that allow small subcultures to flourish.

After a life spent surrounded by different sets of slogans Arash Hanaei’s works ‘City Land Escapes’ and ‘Billboards’ show Tehran as a palimpsest - with its physical structure being built and rebuilt over and over again, and on which political, economical and social texts are superimposed.

Vahid Sharifian’s series of digital photographs recontextualise images of Sophia Loren culled from an out-of-print 1972 cookbook. Sharifian's work touches on themes as wide-ranging as public personality, individual identity, sex and food, and the recent political history of the artist's home country.

Simin Keramati explores female identity with her portraits of women wearing a mask like excesses of make up. Her portrait ‘Make Up’ features a woman with closed lips and blood red lipstick smeared across her cheek as if she wishes to s peak of an objection to a society where sensuality is stripped from the female form, but cannot. The artist herself explains, "Make up" is a painting from the series "self portrait", all the works are about the objections I have to the society I live in as an artist. The work "make up" is a bitter portrait of a woman tired of wearing too much make up, her skin reminds us the plastic texture of a mask, the red lipstick around her lips reminds us of the color of blood... In the society I live in you are not permitted to wear make up but on the contrary women love to wear too much of it, but it is much more complicated when you want to talk about your needs, you could bring your life at risk (like the movement of women in Iran, they've put them in jail for demanding their basic needs), this portrait shows a woman with closed lips with the color of blood, she wants to say something.”

About the curators A&E
Made in Iran is the first collaboration by curators and art consultants Arianne Levene and Églantine de Ganay who have spent the last 5 years travelling to source the most interesting emerging artists for foundations and private collectors. Since completing a Masters in Contemporary Art at the Courtauld Institute, Arianne Levene has worked within the art world, most notably at Sotheby’s, UBS and for Lord Jacob Rothschild. She has since set up her own art consultancy, New Art World, advising major collectors on contemporary art from India, Pakistan, Iran and the Middle East. After studying law, Eglantine de Ganay completed a Masters in Art Management at the EAC in Paris. Scouring the globe she invests a great amount of personal time and energy into sourcing the best in contemporary art from emerging markets, particularly China, for clients all over the world.

Exhibition Information
Made in Iran will take place from 23rd June through 4th July 2009 at Asia House
Address: 63 New Cavendish Street, London W1G 7LP
Opening hours: 10am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday
Nearest tubes: Oxford Circus, Regents Park and Portland Street.