Stephen Fleischman Lectureship

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Alan Shaffer

Amir H. Fallah in front of a painting.

Amir H. Fallah

Iranian-born, Los Angeles-based multi-disciplinary artist Amir H. Fallah creates ornate environments that play with the viewer’s expectations of art, replacing or obscuring what is “usual” in a given scene. He is particularly adept at using patterns and ornamentation. A 5 p.m. reception is followed by a talk at 6 p.m. (MMoCA's annual Stephen Fleischman Lectureship); advance registration at mmoca.org is strongly encouraged.

media release: Every year in the Spring, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) presents the Stephen Fleischman Lectureship, a free talk by a distinguished contemporary artist. This year, MMoCA is pleased to announce that Los Angeles-based artist Amir H. Fallah will share insight into his artwork and studio practice on Thursday, May 22. The evening begins with a reception in the Museum Lobby followed by a lecture in the Lecture Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public, but space is limited and advance registration is strongly encouraged.

Amir H. Fallah creates paintings, murals, sculptures, and installations that explore systems of representation embedded in the history of Western Art. In his ornate environments, Fallah often disrupts expectations of representation in portraiture with images of the main sitter being amended or replaced by a system of signs and symbols related to the sitter's identity(ies). Often his figures' faces are covered with ornamented veils. The deliberate and meticulous use of patterns and ornamentation is a pervasive characteristic of Fallah's oeuvre, resulting in a collection of vibrant and richly detailed images.

Born in Tehran in 1979, Fallah and his family left shortly after the Islamic Revolution, eventually settling in northern Virginia, outside of Washington, DC. When autobiographical, his work addresses generational immigrant experiences of movement, trauma, and celebration.

Neither of this world nor the next, Fallah's works reside in the liminal space of being Othered. They utilize personal history as an entry point to discuss race, representation, and the memories of cultures and countries left behind. Through this process, the artist's works employ nuanced and emotive narratives that evoke an inquiry about identity, the immigrant experience, and the history of portraiture.

Free Admission 

Learn more: mmoca.org/events/amirfallah

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Amir H. Fallah (b. 1979, Tehran, Iran; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) received his BFA in Fine Art & Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art and his MFA in painting at the University of California, Los Angeles. Fallah was the founder and creative director of the art & design publication Beautiful/Decay from 1996–2013. He has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and abroad. Selected solo exhibitions include the Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art in Tucson, AZ; South Dakota Art Museum, Brookings, SD; Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR; San Diego ICA; and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland, KS.