Ali Banisadr: Red: Online

Ali Banisadr (b. 1976, Tehran) creates densely populated paintings influenced by the artist’s perception of sound as inextricably linked to color and form. Drawing on childhood experiences of the Iran-Iraq war, as well as his extant synesthesia, Banisadr works painstakingly and intuitively to build complex compositions that exude a vitality at once turbulent and celebratory. Drawing freely from an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of painting, Banisadr’s gestural brushstrokes create a distinctive visual language, with unbridled energy and dreamlike detail.

With its evocation of pandemonium reinforced by an all-over composition, Red is typical of Banisadr’s eclectic style that draws on both ancient and contemporary sources. The work conceives of an existentially absurd flurry of activity as seen from above—as figures emerge from the dense and dynamic lower portion of the painting, a symbolic blue moon presides prophetically overhead. Banisadr’s use of blazing color is anchored by the painting’s cardinal red sky, a reference that recalls Old Testament turmoil and the impending threat or promise of revelation.