In-between Air, Land and Sea

cb1

Artwork by HK Zamani, Aka Habib Kheradyar

by Dale Youngman

HK Zamani's on display at the CB1 Gallery

CB1 Gallery opened in February of 2010, with a mission of showing contemporary art by emerging and mid-career artists. Their mission statement and philosophy, according to the gallery director/curator Clyde Beswick, is to “exhibit and promote an intellectually demanding yet aesthetically pleasing group of younger and mid-career artists who cross disciplines and political perspectives. The gallery's artists work in a range of media including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and photography.”

Beswick began collecting art in the early 80’s while living in NYC. After moving to LA, he continued to purchase fine art, amassing a collection of over 700 pieces that included early work by artists such as Cathy Opie, Lari Pittman, Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley, Karen Carson, Peter Doig, John Curran and many more with a heavy focus on local/LA artists. In the late 90s Peter Norton purchased his collection, with many works then donated to museums across the country. Thus began a new era of art collecting and business for Beswick, leading up to the opening of the gallery on 5th Street, in the heart of Downtown’s Gallery Row district. The shows at this gallery have consistently been of high caliber, exhibiting some of the most creative and interesting artists seen in downtown. This month’s show “In-between Air, Land and Sea” by HK Zamani continues that tradition.

The new abstract works in this exhibit expand upon the notion of the uncertainty of the earthly elements. Zamani quotes Deepa Mehta when he explains his inspiration, ”Elements can nurture us, and can destroy us. It's their inherent power and their dichotomy that intrigues me: fire for its conflagration, earth for its solidity and water for its fluidity. Conflict seems to be an essential component of our lives. Without it and its resolution, growth is an impossibility.”

Zamani, who is perhaps better known as Habib Kheradyar, will show for the second time at CB1, although this is his first solo exhibition. Zamani was born in Teheran, Iran, but moved to the US as a young boy of thirteen, going to school and later college here in Los Angeles. Zamani is a painter, an installation artist, a performer, a curator, and one-time gallery owner with a penchant for doing things in an unconventional fashion. He is the founder of POST, a local gallery that was open from 1995-2005, which he called a “ subversive venue for contemporary art- a degenerate program, an impractical proposition.” He once curated a show there called “Erased” where he selected works by other artists from his personal collection and “erased” them by spray-painting them all white. He is also well-known for his performance art, which he says he began at age 7, when he tore up an abridged Koran he had hand-written, as a result of a disagreement with his father. His earliest public performances were singing the Koranic verses to the entire student body in the 5th and 6th grades.

His work has been exhibited internationally, including New York City, Cleveland, Ashville NC to Bangkok and Berlin, with performances in Tempe AZ, Frankfurt, Prague, Poland, and of course, Hollywood. It can also be found in the permanent collection of LACMA and the Berkeley Art Museum at UC Berkeley.

Catch this intriguing show at 207 West 5th Street, now through July 2, 2011. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, noon – 6 or by appointment.

For more information about the artist or this exhibit, see www.cb1gallery.com

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