Sareban Gallery

Nature has always been the reference of many artists. In Persian Miniature painting, the luminous manifestation of nature and heaven-like landscapes are quite eye catching. As if there has been an architype of a garden and/or an ideal landscape in the mind of the Iranian painter, although he/she was never aware of that. Disregarding whether the painter was a mysticist or whether he/she had recalled each and every visual element of the narrative and religious texts, the influence of that architype in Iranian miniature landscape painting is noticeable.

Mitra Kavian, who was inspired by the general impression of Persian miniature painting, has created “The Shine of Flowers”, using the help of learnt modernist principles and the shine of the Persian miniature painting she has adopted. In this series, which is proceeding her previous paintings, she, according to the tradition of miniature painting, has attempted to record an instant of an original text. It is while the dimensions, touches and technique, propose a different visual form, far from the Persian miniature “tradition”. The painter has reached nature through a transition from narration. She has followed a move from whole to a part, exaggerating elements of nature and then, she has quit.

To maintain a personal narration, Kavian has used famous Iranian literature themes and by applying different materials and media, collage and spontaneous and expressive touches, she has created an expressive nature, vis-a-vis the emotional narration. The cut scenes of narrations remain unfinished and every little part of the nature therefore, outstands in the absence of the human.