Artist's Website

Grant Summary
Support for Ancient Through Modern, an ongoing project that intervenes in museum collections of Islamic Art.
Keywords
Artist Statement
Using a variety of forms including painting, collage, drawing, and installation, I find the potential of image-making to function as a tool for a renegotiation of history. In my paintings, I have explored the complex relationship between Western modernism and traditional art forms from the East. Patterns taken from Persian carpets are combined with the language of modernist abstraction to question the hierarchies set forth by Western art history. My collages and installations explore the role that encyclopedic museums in the West play in representing the history of non-Western cultures. I am interested in the cultural nostalgia associated with these museums, where many expatriates go to gaze into the glorious past of their mother culture.

  • Ancient Through Modern: A Collection of Uncertain Objects Part 1 2014, Kamrooz Aram, Mixed media installation (96 x 171 x 22 inches). Courtesy of the artist.

  • Ancient Through Modern: A Collection of Uncertain Objects Part 1 2014, Kamrooz Aram, Detail of mixed media installation. Courtesy of the artist.

  • Ancient Through Modern: A Collection of Uncertain Objects Part 1 2014, Kamrooz Aram, Detail of mixed media installation. Courtesy of the artist.

  • 7000 Years 2013, Kamrooz Aram, Collage (17 x 14 inches). Courtesy of the artist.