Curatorial Statement

A Gaze Through Time brings together artists whose practices examine the ways in which memory is preserved, transformed, and reimagined across time. Spanning personal recollection, migration, mythology, political critique, and historical representation, the exhibition considers memory not as a fixed archive, but as a dynamic force through which the past continually informs the present.

As ADVOCARTSY’s inaugural exhibition in its new Downtown Los Angeles gallery, A Gaze Through Time also marks the gallery’s return to DTLA, where it first established its presence in the city’s cultural landscape. 

At the heart of the exhibition is the act of looking itself: the gaze as witness, as remembrance, and as a means of negotiating both intimate and collective histories. Through diverse media and visual languages, the artists reveal how images carry traces of lived experience, cultural inheritance, and political realities

Tahmineh Javanbakht‘s mirror-based works draw upon the rich traditions of mirrored ornamentation and geometry found throughout Iranian architecture and sacred spaces. Reflective surfaces become sites of contemplation, evoking memory, beauty, and the fragmented nature of identity and recollection.

Shadi Yousefian‘s works engage themes of migration, displacement, and belonging. Through the use of handwritten letters and layered script, Yousefian transforms personal narratives into meditations on memory, language, and the enduring emotional landscapes of exile.

Rashin Kheiriyeh revisits scenes from the Shahnameh, the monumental Persian epic, reanimating historical and literary narratives through a distinctly contemporary sensibility. Her works bridge myth and modernity, inviting viewers to reconsider the continuing resonance of cultural memory and storytelling.

Mohammad Barrangi‘s reimagined Qajar portraits draw upon nineteenth-century Persian visual traditions while challenging established narratives of identity, representation, and history. Through acts of reinterpretation and transformation, Barrangi creates new dialogues between past and present, tradition and contemporaneity.

ADVOCARTSY is particularly honored to present two special  works by the acclaimed Iranian-American artist Nicky Nodjoumi, whose decades-long practice has offered some of the most incisive and enduring critiques of political power and authoritarianism. The inclusion of these important works presents a unique opportunity to revisit Nodjoumi’s prescient vision at a moment when questions surrounding democracy, leadership, and global political instability have once again assumed urgent relevance. Through satire, allegory, and carefully staged compositions, Nodjoumi exposes the contradictions and performative dimensions of power, revealing how historical struggles continue to echo across time and geography.

Together, the works in A Gaze Through Time suggest that memory is neither singular nor static. Rather, it is continually rewritten through acts of looking, remembering, and reimagining. Moving fluidly between personal recollection, historical narrative, and political commentary, the exhibition reveals how the past remains active within the present, shaping our understanding of identity, history, and contemporary experience.

In bringing these varied artistic voices into conversation, A Gaze Through Time invites viewers to reflect upon the images, histories, and experiences that endure in memory and time.

Selected Works

Rashin Kheiriyeh
Me Time (Shahnameh), 2025

Oil, acrylic, ink, and gold leaf on canvas
60 x 48 in

Nicky Nodjoumi
The Long Day, 2017

Oil on canvas
70 x 50 in

Mohammad Barrangi
Embracing my dreams, 2025

Reverse Transfer Printmaking on raw canvas
46 x 30 in

Shadi Yousefian
Letters 34, 2020

Original letters collaged onto wood panel
33 x 24 in