Sa Art Gallery is hosting a new series of collages by well-known contemporary artist Tooran Zandieh.
Zandieh, an art teacher, attributed “her long years of teaching as the reason why she got involved in painting at the age of 63.” The long gap, “made me pour out what was accumulated in my mind.” She said the technique of collage art is more difficult than painting and involves several levels, but now she has compensated for the delay through her artwork, Honaronline reported.
All her collages are related to woman, she said, and added: “I have worked till the age of 75. Each art work is an illustration of my life.” Some figures in her works are sans eyes and ears. Zandieh explained this as “her conversations, which people did not listen. They ignored me because of my gender and this doesn’t solely refer to men.” There are women also who have prejudices against other women, she said, which is reflected in her works of art.
The gallery exhibited 48 collages. “I try to convey my emotions and experiences through art.” A collage is generally made using scissors but “my ideas are rooted in patchworks made together with my mother when I was a child.” She said her childhood patchworks meant “love and life and affected her emotions and nature.”
Her artworks are not merely collages, but a combination of different media, including color.
Educator
Tooran Zandieh graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Tehran University Faculty of Fine Arts. Her experience includes over 40 years of academic and professional work in the field of art education, specializing in the integration of art with child psychology.
She is a successful educator, her students having held more than 15 international titles in art festivals for work achieved under her direct guidance and supervision. She is also involved in various research projects and educational workshops for both children and their families on topics such as psychology, interpersonal skills and child-parent relationships, together with her husband, Gholam-Hossein Nami.
Zandieh has over 45 years of experience as an art instructor in drawing, painting and art fundamentals at the Center for Art Education in Tehran, and numerous other universities. Since 2002, she has started “a new era in her artistic experiments with a unique style of collage.” She expresses her feelings and ideas by creating modern pieces of art out of pages she reinterprets “in a mysterious and magical way.”
Previously her works have been showcased at two galleries: Elahe Gallery and Iranian Artists Forum. She also held a solo exhibition at Queen Gallery, in Toronto in 2009.
“I do not want to describe who I am, what I have done and what were my achievements in the past 69 years. I want to speak directly to your heart through my works. I want you to see me, my real self, in my works, read my life like a story from within the shapes and colors and connect with me to the deepest levels of my thoughts. I am presenting to you my past, my soul, my pains and sorrows and my happiness and hopes with my works,” she says.
The exhibition will run until May 10 at Sa Art Gallery, No. 134, 8th Boostan St., Pasdaran Ave., Tehran.
