Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians—The Afkhami Collection

10 September 2021 – 16 January 2022

Asia Society New York

Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians—The Afkhami Collection | Asia Society

Drawn from the Mohammed Afkhami Collection, “Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians” presents works by more than twenty artists from Iran and its diaspora. Revising traditional aesthetics and probing subjects such as gender identity, war, peace, religion, and spirituality, the works, which date from 1998 to the present, are realized in a variety of mediums, from painting and sculpture to photography and video installation. Through open critique or subterfuge, humor, spirituality, and poetry, the artists overcome the restrictions and pressures that have affected Iranians (or “Persians,” an expedient term of self-identification within the diaspora) in the past quarter century.