Chaos II: Reza Nosrati

MEY is pleased to present Chaos II, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Tehran based artist Reza Nosrati. Organized in collaboration with Zonpass Art Consultancy, this exhibition is the first time the artist’s work is being shown in the United States.

In ancient Greek mythology, Chaos is the empty yet energetically charged space at the beginning of time. Also regarded as an airborne goddess, Chaos has come to be symbolized by birds. In this exhibition, the artist visualizes this revered yet elusive subject; expanding upon his ongoing series of the same name, Chaos II features kaleidoscopic birds in flight against prismatic and undulating backgrounds. 

Ebbing between motion and stillness, Reza’s fluttering subjects are calligraphic in their grace; like scripture, they cascade across the canvas. While the birds’ flight generates a sense of mayhem, the colors they are rendered in—shades of lilac, mauve, burgundy, saffron, and teal—evoke a profound sense of calm. The artist’s practice has long been invested in painting subjects from the natural world, but the pieces in Chaos II mark a distinct shift from the artist’s realistic renderings of flora. 

Forgoing rigidity, Reza replaces formal artistic conventions with experimentally intricate techniques. By applying thin, translucent layers of oil paint to canvas, the artist successfully collapses background and foreground into one another, thereby abstracting an otherwise universally recognizable image. It is in this way that the viewer is no longer positioned at a safe distance from the central subject and is instead intertwined with it, floating between the layers of Reza’s contained environments. 

Often regarded as a symbol of peace, the bird in flight is here heightened into a symbol of impending movement, in which the freedom of flight is usurped by the chaos of its frenzy. The paintings of Chaos II are thereby actioned retainers of past events, processing them as they unfold a new future.