Masoud Abedi’s acrylic on canvas paintings are generously proportioned, richly hued snapshots of public and private life in its most poignant and startling cultural manifestations. Deep reds and greens in varying shades dominate Abedi’s subtle, dreamlike compositions, framed by the exactitude and rigor of geometric space. Alluding to sites of historical architecture in the artist’s home country of Iran, including mosques and palaces, math and geometry nicely counterbalance Abedi’s painterly effusions, creating a harmonious whole. Notions of inside/outside, exterior/interior and self/other flesh out a visual narrative concerned with humanity and its relationship to the picturesque and the sublime. Statuesque, universal subjects greet bucolic hills, expansive skies, quiet courtyards and social rituals. Abedi’s figures are usually in a state of stasis and contemplation; they ‘wait’ and ‘wish’ as if always on the edge of a metaphysical encounter.
Born 1971 in Tehran, Iran, Masoud Abedi established an industrial machinery company before turning to painting as a fulltime career.