Fariba Rahnavard, an Iranian contemporary and modern painter, was born in Isfahan. She started professional painting at the age of 18. After years of professional work, she got into the Art and Architecture faculty at the Islamic Azad University of Tehran and during these years, turned to Abstract Expressionism, due to her interest in the tragedies of the modern world. The subjects of her approach were mostly history, violence, and disaster in the modern world, which can be seen in her works. Her perseverance in this path resulted in her presence in Biennials and international festivals. Her father was an architect and all her family were artists and fans of music. Her family’s influence resulted in her interest and education in painting and now she is an M.A. student of Painting. She has the experience of holding more than eleven group and solo exhibitions both in Iran and abroad.
She seems to be inspired by artists with subjects close to hers like Bacon and Abramovic and considers the study of the works of surrealist artists, like Rene Magritte, effective in her own works. According to her, she has been waiting for this exhibition – The Disaster Never Rests. She is concerned with the world and its disastrous events in life and, despite its bitter incidents, she is hopeful of the human world. Undoubtedly, painting starts from joy and influence on the audience, but it seeks a higher purpose. A picture entwined in every individual’s contemporary concerns, makes them ponder, conflicts them and turns them into something other than what they already had been, and finally, painting seeks something more than mere joy. This beautiful incident occurs when we match the painting’s text with ourselves, in such a way that the verbal words are washed, our gestures and, more importantly, our beliefs are changed, and we are forced to understand the world in a different way. Solmaz Naraghi, the young painter’s musician friend has written about the works of Fariba: “The overlapping layers in each work create an imaginative narration, which finds its own shapes in the mind of the audience. The genesis of the narrative is where the times twist into each other and it seems that events, parallel to each other, are taking place. This confrontation with the concept of space and time, which is frequently found in modern paintings, is, more than anything, the result of the modern approach in metaphysics… finite, but without boundaries, following the perpetual process of metamorphosis of elements, which together, intensify the dynamism of the disaster.

A short interview with Fariba Rahnavard following her painting exhibition in 4 Gallery.
Miss Rahnavard, How well was the reception toward your works?

There were many viewers, also many criticisms about the works, but economically, we did not have a good sale. It may be because of society’s economic situation, which nowadays is not good at all.

Why disaster, why expressionism, and why bitter?

It seems that my works are bitter, but looking deeper into the light, one can figure out that the background of the work seems bitter because of broken and expedient forms and low lightening, but to present hope for change, what everyone in the Middle East seeks, the darkness needs to be shown so that the light of hope can be recognized. Therefore, my works are an interaction between bitterness and hope for the future. My works refer to the bitter present, but their main purpose is the hope of change with a responsible attitude.

Will your brush, like classic expressionists, influence the public opinion and turn into the conscience of the man?

Artists create because it is their calling to create. How successful and influential their work is, can be of no concern to them. Naturally, there should be critics who evaluate it over time; therefore, I have no answer for you because my job is to create.

What are the achievements of your visual composition and what is your tempo? What are you pursuing with this technique?

Generally, the achievement for every artist is to be influential, but not for a special or certain concept. But, more than this, what an artist does through the process of creation is self-scrutiny. Art is a way for man to know his capacities and, also, works of art may play the role of self-scrutiny for the audiences. I am not an exception. But for the second part of your question, instead of style, if I am going to explain the process of creating my works, I can note that collage and this type of behavior, to achieve the main purpose of my works, is a way to immediately enter myself into my inner world and benefit from this occurrence.