Shayan Afshar

As an artist, it is from within the dimness of the frames and the stare of the colors that I remember my enduring inner memories. In my paintings, I carry with myself all the departed collective things heard and seen in a lifetime. Unbounded as I am, I am still attached to the past. To be in the middle of a conflict amid a frame within another frame, is such a weight on my shoulders that I have to bring it to an end. With the expressions of colors and the dialectical interplay between control and spontaneity of forms, I have to be free. "It is because of being framed within another frame, and the burden of doubt in these fragmented splinters, that I have to enliven myself and to ascertain my individuality in my paintings, collages, and drawings. In my artistic effects, I paint what is endlessly repeated; without a beginning and end, in an eternal time, I denude myself. I paint to pose a question, to reach the essence of oneself, to set the "self" free from its "ego", to remain self-reliant in denudation, and to be not feverish with the vagaries of the world. Unbound from one's denudation, I must reflect upon myself with inert thoughts and dreams.

Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Near Eastern Studies Department, 1997-98.
M. A. University of California, Berkeley, Near Eastern and Persian Studies, 1991.
M.F.A. San Francisco Art Institute, painting & printmaking, 1986.
B.A. UC Berkeley, Liberal Arts (Art Department, painting and printmaking 1984)

Exhibition: "The Courtship of the Colors"
Artist: Shayan Afshar
Solo art exhibition
February 8-14, 2014
SEYHOUN Gallery
9007 Melrose Ave.
West Hollywood, CA 90069

"A Journey in the Arteries of Colors and Time"
Artist: Shayan Afshar
Solo Art Exhibition
October 25–November 13, 2018
Mahe Mehr Gallery
Tehran, Iran