Morteza Khakshoor – “The Itch”
Morteza Khakshoor – “The Itch”
Curated by Vincent Vanden Bogaard
28th November 2024 – 31st January 2025
Solito – Galleria S1 – Piazza Enrico De Nicola 46, Naples
Former Lanificio complex – Staircase B – 1st floor
Opening Thursday 28th November 2024 – 7 p.m.
Solito Gallery continues the 2024 exhibition season with the opening of the show “The Itch” by Morteza Khakshoor, curated by Vincent Vanden Bogaard. The Iranian artist, born in 1984 and based in the United States, presents for the first time in Italy a selection of new works created for S1, the main gallery of the Solito group, in the complex of the former Lanificio in Porta Capuana.
Khakshoor’s artistic practice encompasses various subjects, but it is his deep exploration of the male experience – marked by complexities and vulnerabilities – that defines his work. The male figures in his paintings stem from a blend of found images, personal memories, and imaginative constructs. This deliberate engagement with visual stimuli shapes his daily drawing practice, leading to artworks that are both playfully tragic and vividly dark.
Khakshoor grew up in Iran, where a segregated schooling system led to a strong all-boys environment marked by a testosterone-driven atmosphere. His move to a co-educational college with male-only dorms further intensified this chaotic dynamic, with frequent violations of societal norms and government hostility towards students exacerbating the instability.
Khakshoor’s artistic vision is further enriched by his early experiences with cinematic portrayals of male tragedy, notably through the works of Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, and Laurence Olivier (to name a few), which he encountered on television during his youth (Cinema is still an important fuel and a key influence on his work). Despite his limited comprehension of these films at the time, they instilled in him an enduring fascination – both obsessive and apprehensive – toward the male identity and its potentialities. This duality pervades his work, inviting audiences to engage with the intricate tapestry of masculinity that he deftly unravels.
Over time, and in recent development, Khakshoor’s practice explores deeply the notion of narration and storytelling in portraiture. What is depicted in the new set of works is not auto-fictional nor autobiographical. It is purely imaginative.
With this simple title the artist is expressing the common idea about “getting the Itch to do / for something”. Metaphorically, giving echoes to having an urge to do something. The meaning of the title also refers to the idea of temptation. That temptation that is visible, for the artist himself, over his new compositions: all those individuals seem to be tempted to do something.
For the present exhibition, the artist represented a gallery of vanguard and stylish characters, sharing the same present and the same world, who are part of their own stories. At the first glance, what matters the most for Morteza Khakshoor, is to create an image, to compose it: the joy of creating a specific staging process.
The mystery and the second level of meaning stand in the fact that those scenes are floating in the middle of another existing narrative wherein the characters possess their own freedom out of the frame, out of the limit of the painting, an off-screen life. A movement that exists before and after being captured on the canvas.
He always uses drafts and sketches as a starting point. While drawing, the artist responds to certain faces, or body languages emanated by the characters. A set of elements that he finds appealing and interesting to treat. Through them, the artist is treating universal topics such as love, melancholy, passion, daydreaming or contemplation. (VVB)
Morteza Khakshoor and curator Vincent Vanden Bogaard will both be present at the opening.
We thank: Officina Keller of arch. Antonio Martiniello for the urban regeneration work that for years has involved the area of Porta Capuana and the former Lanificio complex, thanks to the social integration activities of local artisan realities; Valeria Apicella’s Punto Zero Atelier for the support made available during the artist’s stay in Naples; Lanificio Digitale, the open innovation HUB, which has created the digital platform to support Solito’s activities. We would also like to thank ANGAMC – National Association of Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries.
Morteza Khakshoor (b. 1984, Iran) moved to the U.S. in 2010 to pursue his education in Fine Arts. He received his BFA in Sculpture from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in 2015 and completed his MFA in printmaking at The Ohio State University in 2018.
Khakshoor has exhibited his work widely in the U.S. and internationally since 2011. Solo exhibitions include: Rapscallions at Lundgren Gallery, Palma De Mallorca, Spain (2024); Studio Visit at Emma Gray HQ, Santa Monica, CA, USA (2024); Pin-Drop at Duane Thomas Gallery in NYC, USA (2023); The Quiet Path To Otherwhere at Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK (2023); and Dirty Words & A Melody at Wilder Gallery, London, UK (2022). Group exhibitions include: Dad Bods at The Hole, NYC, USA (2024); Painters – London: A Group Show, Half Gallery Annex, NYC, USA (2023); Pour Some Sugar on Me at Lundgren Gallery in Palma Mallorca, Spain (2022); It Was The Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times at Duane Thomas Gallery in NYC, USA (2022), and Humoral Theory (3-Person exhibition) at BEERS London, UK (2020).
Khakshoor is the recipient of many awards, including the Inaugural Emerging Artist Award at the Editions/Artists’ Book Fair (E/AB) in 2018. His works are in private and public collections, most notably at The Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in NYC (USA), X Museum in Beijing (China), and The Bunker Collection in Palm Beach, Florida (USA).
Morteza Khakshoor currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California (USA).
Vincent Vanden Bogaard (b.1986) is an esteemed Belgian curator with a full-bodied and important resume and an independent consultant who has developed over time a strong knowledge and strategic vision for companies in the contemporary art market.
In addition to the opening of Morteza Khakshoor with “The Itch” at the Galleria S1 in the former Lanificio complex, a site-specific solo show by artist Lindsay Merrill is scheduled for next December at the historic Galleria S2 in Piazza Bellini 59.
The formula also includes the relaunch in the new guise of the Solito brand, a small holding company that manages the three physical spaces, a digital platform (awardee project of a ministerial call for Cultura Crea) and the iemme publishing project born in 2011. The project of re-branding and repositioning of the brand and the visual outline is curated by Milan-based Hapto Studio.
Solito Gallery also announces its participation in the special opening of Neapolitan galleries during the Napoli Gallery Weekend in December. The initiative is in continuity with the publication of the Contemporary Art Galleries in Naples 2024 map, still available for free at our locations and other outlets.
Morteza Khakshoor – “The Itch”
Curated by Vincent Vanden Bogaard
28th November 2024 – 31st January 2025
Opening Thursday 28th November 2024 – 7 p.m.
Free entry
Solito – Galleria S1 – Piazza Enrico De Nicola 46, Naples
Former Lanificio complex – Staircase B – 1st floor
Monday – Friday > 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. / Saturday and Sunday > by appointment
info@galleriasolito.com
Solito Galleries – 081 304 19 19
Communication and press editor-in-chief: Marco Polito
