PARSONS FINE ARTS

Kamrooz Aram is an Iranian born Brooklyn-based artist whose diverse practice engages the relationship between Modernism and ornament through a variety of media including painting, collage and sculpture. Aram’s paintings challenge the hierarchy set forth by Western art history which distinguishes ornament from abstract painting. In his sculptural works, Aram utilizes exhibition design as a medium, challenging the perceived neutrality of museum displays with deliberately designed contexts for the objects and images displayed in his works. These works raise questions about the ways we assign meaning and value to objects, including the paintings themselves, which are often used as backdrops to the displayed objects. Aram’s works have been the subject of solo exhibitions at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium (2017); Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2016; 2014); Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York, New York (2011; 2009); and LAXART, Los Angeles, California (2010), and have been included in numerous group exhibitions internationally. Aram was one of the winners of the Abraaj Group Art Prize 2014; he has also been awarded grants from Art Matters, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program. His work has been widely featured and reviewed in publications such as The New York Times, Art in America, Artforum, ArtAsiaPacific, The New Yorker, The National and Bidoun, and can be found in public collections which include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH; and M+, Hong Kong.