Kamrooz Aram, Privacy Screen for Public Architecture, 2022
Oil, oil crayon and pencil on linen, hinges, artists frame
Composed of 5 canvases: 2 canvases: 245.11 x 83.82 x 3.2 cm;
3 canvases: 245.11 x 77.47 x 3.2 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Domestic Composition (biruni/andaruni), 2022
Wallnut vennered MDF, glass, oil and pencil on linen and ceramic objects
121.9 x 91.4 x 20.3 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Domestic Composition (biruni/andaruni) (detail), 2022
Kamrooz Aram, Arabesque Composition for a Distant Garden, 2021
Oil, oil crayon and pencil on linen, Composed of 3
2 canvases: 243.8 x 127 x 3.8 cm; 1 canvas: 243.8 x 121.9 x 3.8 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Arabesque Composition for a Distant Garden (detail), 2021
Kamrooz Aram, Variations on Wine Bottle, Polychrome on White Ground, 2021
Oil, color pencil and book pages on linen, Installation dimensions: 294.64 x 40.64 cm
Composed of 6 panels: 40.64 x 40.64 cm x 10.16 cm each
Kamrooz Aram
Left: Emergent Ornament, 2021
Right: Emergent Arabesque, 2021
Oil, oil crayon and pencil on linen
243.8 x 116.8 x 3.8 cm each
Kamrooz Aram, Untitled (Arabesque Composition), 2021
Oil, oil crayon and wax pencil on canvas, 198.12 x 172.72 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Untitled (Arabesque Composition) (detail), 2021
Kamrooz Aram, Andata (Luster on Blue Glaze), 2021
Oil, pencil and book page on linen, 60.96 x 50.8 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Composition with lapis lazuli, cobalt and ceramic bottle, 2021
Lapis lazuli and cobalt oil paint on linen, lapis lazuli and cobalt oil paint on wood, marble, ceramic, Panel: 137.16 x 101.6 cm; Pedestal: 106.68 x 20.32 x 20.32 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Palimpsest 50, 2019
Oil, oil crayon, wax pencil and pencil on canvas, 213 x 152.5 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Untitled (Arabesque Composition), 2020
Oil and wax crayon on linen, 152.4 x167.64 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Untitled (Islamic Art), 2021
Paper, book covers and color pencil on linen, 101.6 x 76.2 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Elegy for Blue Architecture, 2020
Oil and pencil on linen, 175.25 x 213.5 x 3.75 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Elegy for Blue Architecture (detail), 2020
Oil and pencil on linen, 175.25 x 213.5 x 3.75 cm
Kamrooz Aram
Installation view at YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2019
Kamrooz Aram, Ornamental Composition (11), 2018
Oil and pencil on linen, 50.75 x 40.5 x 3.75 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Ornamental Composition for Blue Galleries, 2019
Oil, pencil and collage on linen, 61 x 45.7 x 2.5 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Ibn Sina, 2019
Oil, oil crayon, and pencil on linen
198 x 142.25 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Arabesco, 2019
Oil, oil crayon, wax pencil and pencil on linen
157.5 x 137 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Orange Blossom, 2019
Oil, oil crayon and wax pencil on linen
213.5 x 175.25 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Nocturne 3 (Departing Nocturne), 2019
Oil, oil crayon, wax pencil and pencil on linen
193 x 152.5 cm
Kamrooz Aram
Ornament for Extraordinary Architecture, 2018
Oil, wax, oil crayon and pencil on canvas, 198 x 112 cm
Installation view at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Kamrooz Aram, The Rumor Circuit, 2018
Oil and oil crayon on linen, 228.5 x 198 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Le Grand Jeu, 2017
Oil and oil crayon on canvas, 213.5 x 182.75 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Tempered Composition with Three Points (Palimpsest #8), 2013
Oil, oil pastel and wax pencil on canvas, 213 x 183 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Backdrop for an Unstable Interior (Palimpsest #24), 2013
Oil, oil pastel and wax pencil on canvas, 213 x 168 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Blue Backdrop for Minor Arts, 2018
Oil and pencil on linen, oil on MDF, brass, terrazzo, ceramic, Dimensions variable
Kamrooz Aram, Blue Backdrop for Minor Arts (detail), 2018
Kamrooz Aram, Green Movement, 2018
Panel: oil and pencil on linen; Pedestal: wood, brass, terrazzo; Ceramic, Dimensions variable
Kamrooz Aram, Green Movement (detail), 2018
Kamrooz Aram, Green Memorial, 2017
Green marble, linen on mdf, ceramic, brass
33 x 35.5 x 35.5 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Ornamental Composition for Social Spaces 16, 2017
Oil, wax, oil crayon and pencil on canvas
198 x 142.25 cm
An Object, A Gesture, A Decor, Kamrooz Aram
Installation view at FLAG Art Foundation, NY, 2018
Kamrooz Aram, Esfahan Composition, 2018
Color pencil, book cloth and postcards on linen
45.75 x 61 cm
Kamrooz Aram, Ancient Blue Ornament: Still Life with Bottle, 2016
Archival pigment print, 53.25 x 53.25 cm (each)
Installation view at Atlanta Contemporary, USA
Kamrooz Aram, Ancient Blue Ornament: Still Life with Bottle (detail), 2016
Kamrooz Aram, Ornamental Composition for Social Spaces 14, 2017
Oil, wax, oil crayon and color pencil on canvas
198 x 172.75 cm
Kamrooz Aram, A Monument for Living in Defeat, 2016
Oil, wax and pencil on canvas, terrazzo and brass on panel, solid walnut and brass pedestals, soapstone and alabaster, Dimensions variable
Kamrooz Aram, A Monument for Living in Defeat (detail), 2016
Kamrooz Aram, Ancient Through Modern: An Uncertain Record for Future Nostalgia, 2016
Archival inkjet print, 52 x 78.75 cm, Ed. of 3
Kamrooz Aram, Untitled (From the series Ancient Through Modern 18), 2015
Acrylic, pencil and paper collage on linen
50.75 x 40.5 cm
Kamrooz Aram
Ancient Through Modern: A Collection of Uncertain Objects, Part 1, 2014
Commissioned for the Abraaj Group Art Prize 2014
Kamrooz Aram
Ancient Through Modern: A Collection of Uncertain Objects (detail), Part 1, 2014
Commissioned for the Abraaj Group Art Prize 2014
Kamrooz Aram
Ancient Through Modern: A Collection of Uncertain Objects (detail), Part 1, 2014
Commissioned for the Abraaj Group Art Prize 2014
Detail of Kamrooz Aram, Blue Backdrop for Minor Arts, 2018. Photo by Jason Mandela
Kamrooz Aram’s work disrupts the false opposition between ornament and abstraction, and challenges ornament’s relegation to discourses of criminality and excess. In his wide ranging exhibitions, he stages an encounter between the Euro-American avant-garde and non-western forms of abstraction, interrogating the boundaries between art, artifact, and modes of display. His lyrical paintings and arrangements break down the hierarchies of modernist aesthetics, asking that we rethink its categories and re-encounter these ideas and objects anew. Combining painting, sculpture, collage and exhibition design, he creates an interdependence between object and display, revealing the significance of design and architecture in affecting the interpretation of art.
Kamrooz Aram was born in Shiraz, Iran and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received his BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2001 and MFA from Columbia University in 2003.
Portrait of Kamrooz Aram
Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include: Privacy: An Exhibition, The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2022); Un Object, Un Geste, Galerie Mitterrand, Paris (2021); Lives of Forms: Kamrooz Aram and Iman Issa, Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture, Belgium (2021); The New Arabesque, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India (2021); Arabesque, Green Art Gallery, Dubai (2019); An Object, A Gesture, A Décor, FLAG Art Foundation, NY (2018); FOCUS: Kamrooz Aram, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX, USA (2018); Ancient Blue Ornament, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA, USA (2018); Kamrooz Aram, Anwar Jalal Shemza, Hales Gallery, NY, USA (2018); and Ornament for Indifferent Architecture, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Belgium (2017) amongst others.
Recent group exhibitions include: Paraventi: Folding Screens from the 17th to 21st Centuries, Fondazione Prada, Milan (2023); Matisse Alive, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2021); Field of Vision, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, USA (2021); RELATIONS: Diaspora and Painting, PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada (2020); Some Mysterious Process: 50 Years of Collecting International Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2020); Desorientalismos, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain (2020); Fragile Frontiers: Visions on Iran’s in/visible borders, YARAT Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan (2019); Gateway: Fragments, Yesterday and Today, Gallery S, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2019); The Crime of Adolf Loos, Axel Vervoodt, Belgium (2019); Jameel Prize 5, The Porter Gallery, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK (2018); and Le Musée Imaginaire, Pavillion Trab, Jaou Tunis, Tunisia (2018) amongst others.
AAR spoke to Kamrooz Aram about his ongoing fellowship at the Academy.
Through painting, and more recently, sculpture and collage, Kamrooz Aram’s practice explores the classification and hierarchies of art history.
Kamrooz Aram revisits many recognizable forms—the problematic arabesque being a focus of his efforts, but others tropes and gestures as well, pulled from antiquity (Islamic and otherwise), carpets and textiles, and the works of modernist architects such as LeCorbusier.
Vivian Sky Rehberg review Kamrooz Aram and Iman Issa’s exhibition, Lives of Forms, at Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture, Hasselt, Belgium.
Nadine Khalil reviews Kamrooz Aram's third solo show at Green Art Gallery, Dubai.
Paul Laster reviews FOCUS: Kamrooz Aram at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas.
Critics' Picks: Lee Escobedo on Kamrooz Aram in FOCUS: Kamrooz Aram at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas.
Review of Kamrooz Aram's museum solo FOCUS: Kamrooz Aram at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth by Christopher Blay.
A review of Kamrooz Aram's solo Ancient Blue Ornament, curated by Daniel Fuller at Atlanta Contemporary by Jordan Amirkhani.
Critics' Picks: Paula Burleigh on Kamrooz Aram in Kamrooz Aram, Anwar Jalal Shemza at Hales Project Room, NY.
Exhibition Review of Kamrooz Aram's Recollections for a Room by Murtaza Vali.
Kamrooz Aram discusses his recent work and shows in Dubai and Belgium in an interview with Michael Stipe.
Hrag Vartanian names Kamrooz Aram's solo show Palimpsest: Unstable Paintings for Anxious Interiors as a Honorable Mention at the Top 10 Exhibitions Around the World.
Fixed Unknowns, the current exhibition on the upper level of Tribeca’s Taymour Grahne Gallery, breeds constant questioning of the image before the eyes.
Ari Akkermans review Kamrooz Aram solo exhibition Palimpsest: Unstable Paintings for Anxious Interiors on Mantle.
Christopher Lord reviews the monograph of Kamooz Aram Unstable Paintings for Anxious Interiors in May/June issue of Harper's Bazaar Art Arabia.
Ideologies and iconography are at the core of Kamrooz Aram’s oeuvre, rendered abstractly through his paintings, drawings and collages. Murtaza Vali speaks with the Iranian-born New York-based artist, who is among the winners of the Abraaj Group Art Prize 2014.
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie reviews Kamrooz Aram and Seher Shah's work in the exhibition Brute Ornament at Green Art Gallery in Bidoun Magazine.
Curated by Murtaza Vali, this exhibition of recent works by Kamrooz Aram and Seher Shah could easily be mistaken for yet another critique of modernism’s ideologies, myths, and utopian flops.
