ARTISTS Abbas Kowsari

Shade of Water series, 2008
Digital C-type print
70 x 105 cm
Edition of 5
Shade of Water series, 2008
Digital C-type print
70 x 105 cm
Edition of 5
Women Police Academy series, 2006
Digital C-type print
70 x 105 cm
Edition of 7
Masculinity A series, 2006
Digital C-type print
70 x 105 cm
Edition of 7
Light series, 2012
Digital C-type print
100 x 150 cm
Edition of 7
Light series, 2012
Digital C-type print
100 x 150 cm
Edition of 7
Shade of Earth series, 2008
Digital C-type print
70 x 105 cm
Edition of 5
Shade of Earth series, 2008
Digital C-type print
70 x 105 cm
Edition of 5

For Abbas Kowsari (Tehran, 1970) photography is an enduring source of power and a way of talking to the world. He has worked for over ten years at Iranian leading newspapers, most of them now banned from publishing. He currently works as the senior photo editor for Shargh newspaper in Tehran. Internationally he has been published in the New York Times, Time magazine, Paris Match and Der Spiegel amongst others.

Kowsari’s work is balanced somewhere between documentary photography and fine art – his saturated colours, delicate washes, and refined emotional content sit alongside his wry commentaries, and distanced characters, playing out scenes within his frames like actors caught in a Brechtian drama. All are tangled in the web of history, moments stilled in time, events which one day will be reflected upon as “then”, “in those days”.

For the artist's complete and available work list, to enquire.

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Biography

Artist's Exhibitions

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Biography

Born in 1970, Tehran
Lives and works in Tehran

Education

2005-2006

MA Photography with Distinction, London College Communications

1997-2001

BA Double Hons French and Italian, 2:1, University College London

Solo Exhibitions

2014

Abbas Kowsari, The Wapping Project Bankside, London

2012

Light, Nicolas Silin Gallery, Paris
Light, Aaran Art Gallery, Tehran

2008

Shade Of Water – Shade Of Earth, Aaran Art Gallery, Tehran

Group Exhibitions

2014

Contemporary Iranian Photography, The Fine Arts Gallery of California State University, L.A.
Burnt Generation, Somerset House, London

2012

Light From The Middle East: New Photography, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London

2011

Good City for Dreamers, Nicolas Silin Gallery, Paris
My Super Hero, Morono Kiang Gallery, L.A

2010

TILT, Breda Photo Festival, Breda
A Positive View, Somerset House, London
Iran Diverso: Black Or White, Verso Arte Contemporanea Gallery, Torino
THE PROMISE OF LOSS:A CNTEMPORARY INDEX OF IRAN, Arario Gallery, New York

2009

One Day:A Collective Narrative Of Tehran, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco
The Promise Of Loss:A Contemporary Index Of Iran, Brot Kunsthalle Gallery ,Vienna
Iran 1979-2009:Between Hope And Chaos, 30 Years Of Iranian Documentary Photography, Monnaie de Paris Museum, Paris
Second Biennial Photoquai, Quai Branly Museum, Paris
Iran Inside Out, Chelsea Art Museum, New York

2004

Muslims Muslims, La Vilette, Paris

2003

Portraits, French Embassy, Damascus

2002

Iran Contemporary Photographers, Assar Art Gallery, Tehran

Awards

2009

Prix Pictet, London – Nominated and shortlisted
Magic of Persia, London – Nominated and shortlisted

Monographs and Catalogues

2014

Amazingly Original: Contemporary Iranian Art at Crossroads

2012

Tehran Art, A Popular Revolution

2008

Iranian Photography Now
Transit Tehran: Young Iran And Its Inspiration

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