Please Join us for
Shadi Yousefian’s Solo Exhibition
from 4-7 pm on October 8, 2017
at THE SPACE by ADVOCARTSY in DOWNTOWN LA
at 924 S San Pedro St, Los Angeles, CA, 90015
parking and refreshments available on premise
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Joining Downtown Los Angeles’ burgeoning art scene is the new contemporary art and project venue, THE SPACE by ADVOCARTSY.
The new art space is a permanent extension of ADVOCARTSY’s Art Brief exhibition series launched in 2015, a contemporary fine arts platform that aims to raise awareness of and engagement with Iranian contemporary art. ADVOCARTSY will use THE SPACE to host diverse fine art events, educational programs and exhibitions, with a wide range of collaborations, both nationally and internationally as a nexus for artists, critics, curators, and collectors.
The 1,800-square-foot-space is ideally situated in the heart of Downtown LA’s Fashion District, minutes from the rapidly expanding arts district and LA’s newest museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
The venue was born out of necessity. “I needed a physical location to sustain the energy from the Art Brief series and to continue the engagement between Iranian contemporary art and the art community,” says ADVOCARTSY founder, Roshi Rahnama.
THE SPACE’s inaugural exhibition features the work of artist Shadi Yousefian. “I chose Shadi for the opening exhibition because of her expansive body of work directly dealing with cultural identity and the immigrant experience,” says Rahnama. “Her intimate combination of personal experience with social and political issues results in a skillfully confrontational energy while utilizing minimalism, photography, and collage as a way to mediate that encounter.”
Born in Tehran, Yousefian moved to the U.S. as a teenager. “My work has always been informed by a duality that I’ve experienced as an immigrant living in the United States,” says Yousefian. “I feel like I’m being pushed into the realm of ‘the Other’ despite the fact that I’m a citizen and I feel like my work becomes more universal and less personal, speaking for several communities and not just Iranian-Americans.”
The exhibition spans 15 years, going from her early photographic work to mixed media constructions, and includes new work being exhibited for the first time. In the show will be Yousefian’s Universal Identity Series (2006). She photographed nude portraits of a diverse array of people, cut and distorted the negatives and reassembled them, printing the composite portraits lifesize on canvas. The result is an examination of the fluidity of identity—and how it is colored by the viewer’s perspective and assumptions.
In her series Letters (2006–2017) Yousefian uses decades-old letters from friends and family in Iran. Handwritten in a pre-Internet world, the letters have been transformed from a personal archive under the artist’s bed to a distillation of feelings and specific times. By cutting the letters up and mounting them on wood, she at once destroys and preserves the documents, and gives viewers an intimate look into the immigrant experience.
What emerges is a perpetually fragmented identity of the outsider, conjured through the depiction of nostalgic tales of loss, sadness, and redemption.
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General information:
Exhibition dates: Oct. 8–22, 2017
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Address: 924 S. San Pedro St., Los Angeles, CA, 90015
Parking: Available on premise
Future events at THE SPACE include a solo exhibition of Sepideh Salehi’s photography, abstract works and video in December and a solo exhibition of Pouya Afshar’s installations and moving imagery in January.
About ADVOCARTSY:
ADVOCARTSY is a collaborative fine arts platform that addresses and engages with Iranian
Contemporary Arts both nationally and internationally. Roshi Rahnama is the founder, principal and
director of ADVOCARTSY. THE SPACE by ADVOCARTSY produces diverse art events, projects
and exhibitions with artists, curators and galleries to further awareness and community engagement.
Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/advocartsy/
Instagram: @Advocartsy
for additional information please contact info@advocartsy.com
for press inquires please contact roxie@roxiepr.com
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924 S. San Pedro St. | Los Angeles | CA | 90015
