April 20 - May 25, 2002

M.Y. ART PROSPECTS is pleased to invite CIMA, the Center for Iranian Modern Arts, presenting their new exhibition Cross Cultural Expressions from April 20 through May 25. Opening reception will be held on Saturday, April 20, 2-5pm.

Organized by CIMA, "Cross Cultural Expressions" features four emerging Iranian-American artists -- Zahra Farmanfarmaian, Amir Fallah, Roshan Houshmand, and Reza Kassai -- whose work is focused on issues of hybridity, transglobal identity and multiculturalism. For more information, please visit www.cimarts.org

Zahra Farmanfarmaian creates mixed-media projects designed as three-dimensional travelogues. Each piece of work is a record of the artist's site-specific experiences and interactions. Through the use of locally available resources and culturally familiar materials, her experiences are depicted in what becomes a journal or travelogue.

Amir Fallah produces works influenced by the narrative power of comic books and characterized by underlying humorous commentary. Gated suburban communities, strip malls, graffiti-like text phonetically sounded out in Farsi, Abstract Expressionism, Middle Eastern patterns, logo designs, and Islamic architecture are combined together in images that leave traces of a story without revealing the end.

Roshan Houshmand collects samples of real life; real objects such as flowers, strips of fabric, postcards and maps ... remnants with which to reconstruct, in plastic form, the memory, the poetry and the spirit of her reality. Collecting and reconstructing layer upon layer of fabric, texture, color, image, object, and memory, her work becomes a poetic response to life.

Reza Kassai's whimsical and humorous paintings depict a bridge between the two dynamic cultures that have influenced him. Kassai's "Random Thoughts" is an ongoing project that takes different directions with the flow of time. His work has a childlike whimsy and flair which suggest comments, opinions, and the use of words in several languages.

M.Y. ART PROSPECTS, operated in New York City's Chelsea district since 1999, is please to stage this new exhibition following our first collaboration with CIMA last September. At that time, in the immediate wake of the 9/11 tragedy, the CIMA-organized "Alchemy" exhibition became a focal point for cultural dialogue.