Feb. 23 - Apr. 1, 2006

M.Y. ART PROSPECTS is pleased to present the first New York solo exhibition of Amir H. Fallah, opening Thursday, February 23 and continuing Saturday, April 1. The L.A.-based artist just received his MFA from UCLA last May, and this January, L.A. Weekly named him one of the top ten emerging artists in the region.

Entitled "I Wanted to Change the World but All I Changed was Myself," Fallah’s latest works are acrylics on canvas that create dark quasi-architectural spaces within which bright colorful fragments swarm and scatter as if in the aftermath of an explosion or in the process of transformation. The ambiguity and transience of the ‘mess’ create an eerie contrast to the surrounding walls that appear untouched, clean and silent.

His teen-age affinity with graffiti is still evident in his new body of work, but Fallah tactfully conjures various elements of high and low art, nourishing his vocabulary of flat, graphic passages with painterly expressionistic swatches. According to his recent artist statement, Fallah is interested in exploring and bridging the gap between design and art, art history and pop culture, and adolescence and adulthood.

Persian by birth, Fallah is heir to his native culture’s artistic traditions. His decorative elements are both continuous and discrete, coexisting in a complex universe. The vibrant organism achieved in his detailed patterning of abstract shapes is juxtaposed with the static space enclosing it. The borders of the surrounding fields (the floor and the walls) further accentuate his composition.

Born in Tehran, Iran in 1979, Amir H. Fallah holds an MFA in Painting from UCLA, Los Angeles, as well as a BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute of College of Art in Baltimore. He has been included in group exhibitions and art fairs in Los Angeles and New York since 2000, and in 2005 he made a solo exhibition debut at Third Line Gallery in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Fallah is a founder of and has been a creative director for Beautiful Decay, L. A.-based quarterly pop culture & art magazine since 2002.

Feb. 23 - Apr. 1, 2006

"Untitled" from series "Paper_work", 2005.

M.Y. ART PROSPECTS' PROJECT ROOM is pleased to present new gelatin silver prints by New York-based artist, Go Sugimoto, opening Thursday, February 23 and continuing Saturday, April 1.

After focusing on city nightscapes for the last few years, Sugimoto returns to studio photography and subjects as deceptively mundane as the bright white mass-produced copying paper. By folding and rolling these sheets into simple shapes, Sugimoto demonstrates the seemingly infinite variety of perspectives that a basic form can take. In making this series, the artist realized that looking at one thing in different ways actually changes one's thinking, giving life the same potential.

"Paper_work" is paper-within-paper work. On a sheet of white photo paper is the image of a sheet of white paper itself. Sugimoto explores this duality with a clever Minimalist Abstract playfulness. The contrast between the object and the surrounding space and the contrast between the composition and the photo paper are maintained as minimally as possible. The image of the object is so ambiguous that one can hardly tell its material and orientation, yet it remains visible like a frost on clear weightless space.

The exhibition will feature six to eight gelatin silver prints from the "PAPER-WORK" series, all produced in 2005.

Born in Yamaguchi, Japan in 1979, Go Sugimoto holds a Certificate in General Studies Photography from International Center of Photography. Sugimoto's "Walk In the Night" black and white photo series was featured by "Wraparound" magazine in 2003 and was exhibited at M.Y. Art Prospects’ group shows in 2004 and 2005. His most recent solo exhibition at Art Cocoon, Tokyo, was covered by influential Japanese fashion/culture magazine "Studio Voice." Sugimoto works as a freelance printer and photographer.