Azadeh Nia: A Silent Volcano

Fridman Gallery is honored to announce Azadeh Nia's debut solo exhibition, A Silent Volcano. The 14 new paintings are small in scale, but monumental and cinematic in scope - each a microcosm of the universe, a portal to understanding the nonlinear nature of time. They encourage slow, meditative viewing.

Through metaphors and symbols, Nia presents a timeless dreamscape where the distant past and the dystopian future, unadulterated nature and archeological ruins, coexist on one plane. Separation, stillness, solitude, and despair (symbolized by single trees and pillars, the lone moon, abodes devoid of people) foreshadow spaces for hope and growth (the open sky, flowing water, blooming flowers, infinite pathways).

We, the viewers, find ourselves at once indoors and outside, at dusk and at dawn of civilization. Stranded elements of the built environment - standalone corners, half-shuttered doorways, empty fountains - offer places to hide and observe, concealed from the public eye. The first-person perspective provides intimacy and immersion, yet leaves us completely exposed.

A mountain's serenity belies the geological forces that formed it and its enormous potential for eruption. As such, it is a symbol of resistance and perseverance. Can we withstand the passage of time and changes in environmental and political conditions like this mountain has?