Iran-born New York-based artist YZ Kami has opened an enormous exhibition on the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills. The Beverly Hills exhibition (ends on August eighth) is nearly 10 years after Kami’s solo exhibition held in 2016 on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Meanwhile, in France, Kami’s art work is featured at two museum exhibitions held in France. [Out of Focus] In collaboration with the Musee des Orangely in Paris (till August 18th) and the Louvre (till February 2nd, 2026), on the “Copymaker” (copylist) on the Centre at Pompidou Metz.
Kami found fame within the Nineties with the Untitled collection. A portrait of a younger man of a monumental measurement of 18, coinciding with the deadly AIDS epidemic and lengthy thought of to be a illustration of a affected person. The artist can also be recognized for his 5 work within the “In Jerusalem” (2006) collection of 5 work depicting 5 non secular clergy of various faiths (Catholic cardinals, Eastern Orthodox bishops, Sephardi and Ashnaj Imam) who gathered within the sacred metropolis in 2005.
The Gagosian Beverly Hills present, entitled “Yz Kami: The Domes,” brings collectively two items. A survey of dome work created from 2011 to the current. The architectural construction is interpreted as painted kinds and is a brand new group of “messenger” work.
Kami’s method to artwork is philosophical and contemplative, exploring the ideas of self and spiritualism. His work of the dome emerged from observations of sacred structure, evoking the domes of temples, church buildings and mosques. The portray acts as a mandala – a meditative design aimed toward infinity.
“I used to be a younger Iranian teenager, so I used to be all the time fascinated by structure and I used to be actually related,” Kami stated in an interview final month. “At that point, I visited structure from varied worlds from the Middle Ages and historic instances.”
“When I started finding out in Europe after graduating from highschool, my allure continued, particularly with sacred structure,” he added in an interview with Wallpaper Magazine. “In church buildings, temples, and mosques, there may be this concept of a dome as a paraphor of heaven. This meditation motion is sort of a repeating mantra that passes by means of me.”
The dome is painted in 4 colours: white, blue, black and gold. This, in line with Kami, refers to quite a lot of traditions.
“Most of the domes at this exhibition in LA are white domes, with white mild within the middle, which is completely large and progressively strikes,” he stated in an interview. “In totally different mystical traditions, they’re speaking concerning the expertise of white mild, so that they most likely point out it.”
“Blue is immediately referring to the sky and heaven,” he added. “And black individuals check with the alchemical traditions of Asia, Near Eastern and Europe, and so they say that the method is darkish, particularly relating to the method of base metals.
The work of the dome are accompanied by three new work from the “Messenger” collection. The “Messenger” collection incorporates a single determine seen from behind, shifting in direction of a metropolis that’s situated in entrance of the luxurious greenery of forested hills, or rising like a skyscraper like a distant mirage. These work “present contrasts between the significance of humanity, nature, structure, and maybe the timeless secular world,” Gagosian stated within the exhibition textual content.
Kami was born in Tehran in 1956 to Kamran Yousefzadeh and grew up in Iran. His first encounter with artwork was at a younger age. His mom, Mahin Yousefzadeh, was a portrait painter, so he additionally started portray portraits when he was 5 – 6 years previous. Frequently touring to Iran along with his household, he was impressed by the previous structure and desert surroundings. Both affect his work.
Kami advised the New York Times in May 2023 that she copied the Masters of the West as a youth, Velázquez, Rembrandt, Dega (Pastel), Picasso (Rose Era) – and painted her nonetheless life, summary items and portraits of buddies. He additionally turned an avid reader of Persian poetry, from centuries-old poetry by Rumi and Hafez to the modernist works of Follow Falovzad, and took part within the worldwide Avant-garde Shiraz Arts Festival, that includes music, dance, drama and movies from world wide.
A yr later on the University of California, Berkeley (1975-76), he moved to Paris, the place he studied philosophy on the Sorbonne (1976-81) earlier than settling in New York.
Kami’s works are collected and exhibited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum, the American Museum of Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. It can also be discovered within the British Museum assortment.
He held an exhibition of solo services on the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007). At the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC (Smithsonian Association) (2008); the Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London (2008); on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2016-17).