Azadeh Razaghdoost's practice refers to 19th century European poems of the Romantic Age. The poem "The Sick Rose" (1794) by British poet William Blake and the volume of poetry "Les Fleurs du Mal" (1857) by French poet Charles Baudelaire have infused the artist's work over the years.
The contradictions inherent to human nature are at the core of the artist's work, which she conveys in a sensual, lyrical and allegorical language. By focusing on the emotional properties of the colour red, a leitmotif in the artist's oeuvre, Razaghdoost evokes poetic associations with love, passion and blood in order to explore contrasting existential states and impulses: health and sickness, life and death, love and lust…
The exhibition at Sophia Contemporary Gallery is comprised works from the Sick Rose and Letters series as well as stand-alone paintings such as Recipe for a Poem (2009).
Azadeh Razaghdoost (b. 1979, Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian painter based in Karaj, Iran. Razaghdoost received her BA in Painting from Tehran’s University of Art in 2002. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Vallpalou Foundation, Lleida, Spain and has been widely exhibited internationally, including at the Kunstzeughaus Museum in Zurich and Isfahan Museum of Contemporary Art in Isfahan, Iran.
This Exhibition inaugurated on 24 November 2016 and will run through 10 February 2017.