Amir H. Fallah
Denny Dimin Gallery
612 Remex Center No. 42 Wong Chuck Hang Road
(T) +852 5721 2638 e-mail:
Multiple location : New York Hong Kong
April 2 > June 4, 2022
Denny Dimin Gallery is pleased to announce Joy As An Act of Resistance, a solo exhibition by Amir H. Fallah in Hong Kong.
Amir Fallah is known for exploring portraiture and the representation of identity through his painting, murals, sculpture and installation. His esoteric portraits, where the physical characteristics of his subjects are often masked, hidden or generally absent, offer vignettes into their world; ornate with depicted objects and patterns. Alongside the stories they offer of their subjects, Fallah's paintings act as historical cultural catalogues of imagery assimilated from a variety of global references; tumblr, museum collections, fashion magazines and reconstitutes them into visual plays, creating modern day parables.
In this latest exhibition, Fallah looks to address the psychological fatigue caused by the ongoing pandemic where the onset of challenging and often bleak information is relentless. The title 'Joy As An Act of Resistance' comes from one of the works in the exhibition depicting a classical female, Art Nouveau, figure clad in furs and laden with boxes indicating a shopping spree. The work unwittingly references the term 'revenge shopping', which was coined in 2021 from its original phrasing in Chinese as the desire and rush to make up for lost spending following China's initial lockdown back in 2020. For Fallah, inviting joy as an act of revenge comes in more gentle political acts of resistance – the use of creativity, art and nature to engender joy against the waves of pessimism and misfortune that continue to befall the world. In another work, titled 'You and Your Gun', Fallah confronts a different political approach to current times. The image, this time taken from a vintage copy of Japanese Vogue, the female figure casually applies lipstick as a scene of violence and protest takes place alongside her, drawing upon the lack of agency felt by populations worldwide who are stymied by ineffective politics. In this new body of work, Fallah moves even further to deconstruct the portrait – holding up a mirror where the viewer has the opportunity to see themselves as the subject navigating this new uncharted frontier of living whilst finding joy in nostalgia, indulgence and simple pleasures. Joy can be an act of resistance.
Amir H. Fallah (b.1979, Tehran, Iran) received his BFA in Fine Art & Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art and his MFA in painting at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and abroad. Selected solo exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tucson; South Dakota Art Museum, Brookings SD; Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland OR; San Diego ICA; and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland KS.
In 2009, the artist was chosen to participate in the 9th Sharjah Biennial. In 2015, Fallah received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. In 2019, Fallah's painting Calling On The Past received the Northern Trust Purchase Prize at EXPO Chicago. In 2020, Fallah was awarded the COLA Individual Artist Fellowship and the Artadia grant. In addition, the artist had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, accompanied by a catalogue, and a year-long installation at the ICA San Jose.
Fallah has been featured or reviewed in The New York Times, Artforum, ARTnews, GQ, The Art Newspaper, Whitewall, Harper's Bazaar Arabia, Hyperallergic, Los Angeles Times, Apollo Magazine, and The Guardian.
The artist is in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Miami; Deste Foundation For Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece; Xiao Museum Of Contemporary Art, Rizhao, China; McEvoy Foundation For The Arts, San Francisco; Nerman Museum, Kansas City; SMART Museum of Art at the University of Chicago; Davis Museum, Massachusetts; The Microsoft Collection, Washington; Plattsburg State Art Museum, NY; Cerritos College Public Art Collection, CA; Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture, CA; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama and Salsali Private Museum, Dubai, UAE.
Amir Fallah is known for exploring portraiture and the representation of identity through his painting, murals, sculpture and installation. His esoteric portraits, where the physical characteristics of his subjects are often masked, hidden or generally absent, offer vignettes into their world; ornate with depicted objects and patterns. Alongside the stories they offer of their subjects, Fallah's paintings act as historical cultural catalogues of imagery assimilated from a variety of global references; tumblr, museum collections, fashion magazines and reconstitutes them into visual plays, creating modern day parables.
In this latest exhibition, Fallah looks to address the psychological fatigue caused by the ongoing pandemic where the onset of challenging and often bleak information is relentless. The title 'Joy As An Act of Resistance' comes from one of the works in the exhibition depicting a classical female, Art Nouveau, figure clad in furs and laden with boxes indicating a shopping spree. The work unwittingly references the term 'revenge shopping', which was coined in 2021 from its original phrasing in Chinese as the desire and rush to make up for lost spending following China's initial lockdown back in 2020. For Fallah, inviting joy as an act of revenge comes in more gentle political acts of resistance – the use of creativity, art and nature to engender joy against the waves of pessimism and misfortune that continue to befall the world. In another work, titled 'You and Your Gun', Fallah confronts a different political approach to current times. The image, this time taken from a vintage copy of Japanese Vogue, the female figure casually applies lipstick as a scene of violence and protest takes place alongside her, drawing upon the lack of agency felt by populations worldwide who are stymied by ineffective politics. In this new body of work, Fallah moves even further to deconstruct the portrait – holding up a mirror where the viewer has the opportunity to see themselves as the subject navigating this new uncharted frontier of living whilst finding joy in nostalgia, indulgence and simple pleasures. Joy can be an act of resistance.
Amir H. Fallah (b.1979, Tehran, Iran) received his BFA in Fine Art & Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art and his MFA in painting at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and abroad. Selected solo exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tucson; South Dakota Art Museum, Brookings SD; Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland OR; San Diego ICA; and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland KS.
In 2009, the artist was chosen to participate in the 9th Sharjah Biennial. In 2015, Fallah received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. In 2019, Fallah's painting Calling On The Past received the Northern Trust Purchase Prize at EXPO Chicago. In 2020, Fallah was awarded the COLA Individual Artist Fellowship and the Artadia grant. In addition, the artist had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, accompanied by a catalogue, and a year-long installation at the ICA San Jose.
Fallah has been featured or reviewed in The New York Times, Artforum, ARTnews, GQ, The Art Newspaper, Whitewall, Harper's Bazaar Arabia, Hyperallergic, Los Angeles Times, Apollo Magazine, and The Guardian.
The artist is in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Miami; Deste Foundation For Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece; Xiao Museum Of Contemporary Art, Rizhao, China; McEvoy Foundation For The Arts, San Francisco; Nerman Museum, Kansas City; SMART Museum of Art at the University of Chicago; Davis Museum, Massachusetts; The Microsoft Collection, Washington; Plattsburg State Art Museum, NY; Cerritos College Public Art Collection, CA; Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture, CA; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama and Salsali Private Museum, Dubai, UAE.
 | Amir H. Fallah | |
Virtual Reception: Saturday, April 2nd, 12-6 pm HKT
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HONG KONG art press release
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Opening hours :
by appointment
QR of this press release
in your phone, tablet