Reoriented

MEY is pleased to present Reoriented, a group show featuring work by Maryam Amirvaghefi, Mehdi Mirbagheri, Reihaneh Hosseini, Zeynab Movahed, Aryana Minai, Sanam Sayehafkan, Fatemeh Kazemi, Shany Dvora, Phillip Neman and Kaitlin Banafsheha. Presenting work by ten artists of Iranian origin spanning across countries and generations, this exhibition seeks to demonstrate the range with which contemporary Iranian artists are extrapolating their layered identities. 

Reoriented is a nod to and rejection of orientalism, a concept that has long been used in discourses surrounding Iranian art. The term refers to a style of imagining, marginalizing, and controlling an imagined East. The works in Reoriented individually and collectively reject the stereotypical markers of exotification perpetuated by orientalism, thereby generating new perspectives on the themes presented and reorienting art history. 

Ranging from painting to print to mixed media, the included artworks explore themes such as day-to-day life in Iran, migration, diasporic identity, generational trauma, gender inequity, and appropriation. This exhibition is consciously occurring in conjunction with the contemporary revolution taking place in Iran. Zan, Zendegi, Azadi. Woman, Life, Freedom.