Connecting Iranian Artists to the World

The time for our “Iranian Arts Now” online exhibition is now over after three month but due to its success we are extending its display. For this exhibition we received over 500 art submissions from over 200 artists living all over the world including Iran, Turkey, Tajikistan, Egypt, Malaysia, Ukraine, Canada, and various states in the US including California, Arizona, Illinois, and Connecticut.

The submissions included a wide assortment of medium including painting, drawing, photography, calligraphy, sculpture, wood work, illustration, crafts, collage, digital art, installation, and mixed media. There was a wide variety of artistic expressions and styles from traditional and folk art and crafts to modern and contemporary styles.

The outcome was a digital exhibition of over 100 selected artworks showcased at the NeekOn festival on September 26, 2015 at the Koret Auditorium of De Young Museum in San Francisco, California. NeekOn festival was led by Borhan Oskoorouchi and Iranican and was held on de Young Museum and Golden Gate Park of San Francisco, California on September 26, 20015. It was planned to have different art and cultural programs including music, performance, food and bazar, and art gallery mostly offered free to the public. Through the festival, beside the Iranian Arts Now exhibition, over 20 original artworks from local, national and international artists was curated and displayed at a pop-up style exhibition under the Bandshell of Music Concourse of Golden Gate Park.

The festival was visited by over 2,000 visitors (with estimate of over 1,000 guests at a given time), it had the support of over 10 collaborating cultural organizations, was including 7 different ethnic and cultural representations, and it was supported by the help of over 100 volunteers.

Moreover, over 214 accepted artworks of the Iranian Arts Now were showcased on the online exhibition of Ziya Art Center at www.ziyaart.com for the course of 3 months which had over 2,000 visitors worldwide.

The “Iranian Arts Now” exhibition is a showcase of the outstanding examples of the very diverse expressions of the contemporary Iranian artists and the arts inspired by it around the world that is fostering a conversation both among the artists themselves and between the artists and the general public, so that the commonalities and differences in the Iranian expressions can be explored and communicated. This exhibition was curated by award winning artist, Chief Judge and Curator, Arash Shirinbab.