Sara Abri born in 1982
She lives and works in Tehran, where she was born.
A member of the Society of Iranian Painters, as well as the Institution for Promotion of Visual Arts.
She received her BA in Painting from Azad Art University in Tehran in 2005.
Abri started her art career majorly focusing on painting as the embodiment of her works, and after ten years she started to do installation and sculptures.
In her artistic practice, Sara Abri looks at the various circuits within which we exist. With a Pop Art sensibility, she uses various objects to illustrate her exploration of communication and the circular nature of things.
Abri said: “Before I start to do installation and sculptures, I used to do paintings for almost 10 years. There was a period in my professional life that I stopped painting for nearly one year, because of my criticism of art market in Tehran. Then I found two old telephones in my parents’ basement and for no good reason started to collect telephones. That encounter (meeting) was something important for me. Almost all my key concepts are shaped through accidental encounters. Even the artwork (broken wall) in my studio came from an accident. There is a story for it: I was talking to my friend on the phone, we both heard a loud terrifying sound (like explosion of a bomb),
and a part of the ceiling pulled down and destroyed. Another encounter that made me think of turning it into an artwork. Just telling the story so that you know the importance of accidents in shaping my works. Telephones were another encounter...
After some time, it turned to importance of relations (Studying Shannon theory of communication, two sides: receiver and sender and the message that must be coded and decoded to be transferred). The thing I thought about was that the relation is not complete when only one side sends messages, only becomes whole when the circle completes (that’s why I have circle shaped plates in all my works).The main concept of the coming exhibition is human interaction and relations. (encountering and meeting things and people) has two sides, positive and negative, constructive (intact Renault with phone receiver on it, covered with white flowers, that eventually withers) and destructive (scraped Renault, crumpled by phone receiver).”
Solo Exhibitions
2019 “Desire”, Gozar Gallery, Isfahan, Iran
2018 “Circle in circle”, Pirsook Gallery, Shiraz, Iran
2016 “So far so closed”, Qingyun international art center, Beijing, China
2014 “It means Love”, Mohsen Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2013 “So far so closed”, Organhaus Gallery, Chongqing, China
2009 “Green”, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2007 “Live”, Classic Gallery, Isfahan, Iran
2005 “White”, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Abri’s works have been exhibited in several group exhibitions in Iran and other countries such as Iran, China, Belgium, Warsaw, UAS, Turkey and USA.
Residencies
2020 DEPO Istanbul, Turkey
2017 Qingyun international Art Center, Beijing, China
2014 Resident of Rybon Art center Exchange program, Iran- China, Organhause, china
Prizes
2008 The museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran
2007 Representation of Persian Painting , Elahe Gallery, Tehran
2006 Faber Castell, Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran
2004 The 1st National Festival of Tourism "Our Iran", Urmia
2003 The 4th National Student of Visual Art Exhibition
1994 The Festival of Painting, Osaka, Japan