2021 - PA Portfolio

Moon and Cypress

36x30

Oil on Linen

2021

Resting Ride

12x10"
Oil on linen
2021

Night

12x10"
Oil on linen

Illuminated manuscripts have historically served both religious and secular purposes. Drawing from this visual tradition, Amerian utilizes the conventions of illuminated painting – such as its history and layered process – to create ethereal, abstracted works.
Her approach bridges historic Persian literary prose and experimental methods of image making. By utilizing monoprint techniques and by pressing sheets of paper into diluted paint on the surface of the painting and peeling it off again, material is pushed and pulled by chance, building up a surface of veils that has remarkable depth. Ancient stories survive through these pictorial translations and demonstrate their contemporary agency.
This particular work re-imagines a manuscript panel titled Lovers at Night from 1539-4.

Part of S.O.S: A Story of Survival, Part I- The Image, at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery,

8 Oct 2022- 22 Jan 2023. Description courtesy of KWAG.

Melancolie

12x10

Oil on linen

2021

Refuge

12x10

Oil on Linen

2021

Magic Mountain

Installation Shot

Jack Hanley Gallery

Magic Mountain

Installation Shot

Jack Hanley Gallery

Magic Mountain

Installation Shot

Jack Hanley Gallery

Tunes for Shirin

36x30"

Oil on Linen

2021

Opening

36x30"

Oil on Linen

2021

Tale of Bright Water

25x20"

Oil on Linen

2021

Like Albino on the left, Tale of Bright Water also stems from deep romance. Looking to Nizami Ganjavi’s Khamsa (c. 1163-1197), this image reimagines a scene from Khusraw and Shirin, the second of five long narrative poems that constitute the epic text. In the poem, the Persian prince Khusraw has a dream of his grandfather making four predictions, all of which come true:
You will receive four things… You shall ride Shabdiz, the world’s swiftest and most fabled steed… You shall sit on Taqdis, the throne of thrones…; at your bidding, Barbad the musician shall play and with the lightest touch will far surpass the broken notes of your lost minstrel. But beyond all these, you shall have Shirin, your destined love.

The final prediction, that he would marry Shirin, is delayed many years while the couple’s personal qualities are tested during legendary travels across the region. In the end, they survive their trials and find each other on palace grounds showered with glittering gold and silks.

Part of S.O.S: A Story of Survival, Part I- The Image, at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery,
8 Oct 2022- 22 Jan 2023. Description courtesy of KWAG.

Albino

25x20"

Oil on Linen

2021

Albino brings two transitory motifs together. The first reference is to winter white ferns. These deciduous ferns absorb nutrients from their leaves to be stored in underground stems, turning the green leaves bright white. Soon after, the white leaves curl up and fall away. The second reference is to the Persian story of Rudaba. the princess of Kabul who lets down a ladder of her hair for Zaal, a legendary warrior of the Shahnameh epic (977-1010). In the Persian language, Zāl also refers to those who have albinism. Instead of climbing up Rudaba’s ladder, Zaal tosses a lasso up to the roof and climbs to his beloved.

Part of S.O.S: A Story of Survival, Part I- The Image, at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, 8 Oct 2022- 22 Jan 2023. Description courtesy of KWAG.