solo show - Hadi Tabatabaei

Statement:

Bartha_contemporary is pleased to announce an online presentation of recent works by Iranian-born artist Hadi Tabatabai (b. 1964 Mashhad, Iran, lives and works in California). The installation features a selection of 'Thread Paintings'.

In 2003, Hadi Tabatabai visited Agnes Martin at her home in New Mexico. During his visit, Tabatabai asked Martin if she thought perfection, beauty, and reality were one and the same. Upon reflection, Martin countered that they are different, but there is a place where all three come together.

Tabatabai's practice evolves from exploring the aesthetic possibilities of repetition and precision. For this online showcase, the artist assembled a series of works that teeter on the edge between painting and sculpture.

Embracing the formal aesthetic of American minimalism, these works, conceived of string, paint, and various other supports, encompass a haptic quality often missing in hard-edged abstraction.

The carefully calibrated composition of each work invites you to consider the planes of reality from which these works originate. The perception is best described as an experience which evokes a sense of otherworldliness.

Made by the human hand, these objects appear machine-made but not mechanical. It is this contradiction harboured in each work that alludes to the artist's own experience.