Ascension
Keyvan Shovir was born in 1985 in Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war. Seeing Iraqi and Iranian fighter planes in the sky and hearing the warning sirens was his first experience with War. The possibility that at any moment His life could be ended by these steel birds filled me with constant terror. These steel birds were made by humankind and inspired by nature to make the dream of flying come true, but now they were bombing his city and destroying everything. The Ascension series is a body of work that expresses his childhood memories of war. growing up in an environment that demonized Western culture while simultaneously using fighter plane technology made in the USA. Western weapons intentionally sold to facilitate a destructive war between two Middle Eastern states. This is one of the paradoxes of Iranian life. The patterns and shapes in this body of work are drawn from specific historical Iranian sites and his Persian heritage. A silhouette of a now destroyed mosque and the geometry of Islamic tiles. It becomes a metaphor for the complexity of the Middle Eastern conflict, both in the greater societal and cultural ramifications.
Keyvan Shovir is a San Francisco-based interdisciplinary artist. He was born in 1985 in Tehran, Iran and moved to San Francisco in 2011. He has widely exhibited and presented His work in solo and group settings in the United States, Iran, England, Sweden, and Turkey. He is known primarily for his work in public art, painting, and installation that explores history and myth, language, Persian literature, philosophy, and pop culture together.
He studies His BA in the Azad University of Tabriz and He trainedPersian miniature and Eslimi decorative designs in Tabriz. He has participated in public art in Iran and the united state with clarion alley project, Chinese Culture Center.
Ascension presented in several exhibitions in galleries bay area such as:
- Neighbors, Embark Gallery, San Francisco, 2017
- The Murphy & Cadogan Art Awards Exhibition, SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, 2017
- A Conversation on Race & identity Curated by Jan Marlese at LH Horton Jr Art Gallery at Delta College in Stockton
Press
2017 MURPHY AWARD AND CADOGAN SCHOLARSHIPS, The San Francisco Foundation, (December 21, 2017)
2017 Uji Venkat, 2017 Murphy Cadogan Contemporary Art Awards Exhibition, SOMArts, EMERGENT ART SPACE, (November 10, 2017)
