Jaan is a Persian word meaning soul, life, and also dearest. Nature is “Jaan”.
Karin Clarke Gallery is pleased to introduce a new artist into our schedule of exhibits. Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1984, Naeemeh Naeemaei received her BFA from Tehran Art University in 2006, majoring in sculpture.
Locally, Naeemaei is known from her stunning 2019 exhibit titled Dreams Before Extinction, at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.Regarding her work generally, she says: ”I have worked on several series and they mostly had a theme related to nature. My recent painting series has an obvious environmental theme blended with cultural and social issues.”
In 2022, Naeemaei exhibited her JAAN series at the Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland. It features eight stunning, large format photographs on canvas painted with ink made from Willamette National Forest ash. In her statement, she states, “.. Jaan is a visual dialogue with nature. It’s also about unifying with nature through a practice of camouflage, intimation, and finally, dissolving in nature. A form of respectful interaction in which I replaced my body with a delicate red scarf which was initially part of my costume in my painting series. Through this journey, I try to get closer to nature, mostly plants and animals in the Pacific Northwest to play the role of a healer by getting into cracks and wounds as an artery, and being a bandage over broken bodies. Eventually, by the end of the final stage, there would be no body and soon no trace of my presence. Jaan is a Persian word meaning soul, life, and also dearest. Nature is “Jaan”.
In addition to the JAAN series, we are able to present Naeemaei’s most recent work, a just-completed series of mixed media works called Arterioles . Join us at the Gallery on May 19 to experience this powerful body of work and to meet the artist. The Reception will begin at 5:30.
...
Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1984, Naeemeh Naeemaei received her BFA from Tehran Art University in 2006, majoring in sculpture. After graduation, she participated in numerous individual and group shows in Tehran, both in sculpture and painting, including the 5th Tehran Contemporary Sculpture Biennial at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2009, she began a series of paintings about endangered species, which led to her first solo exhibition, Dreams Before Extinction, at the Henna Gallery in Tehran in 2011. In 2013, the series was reproduced in a bilingual (English and Farsi) book of the same title, published by Perceval Press, and shown at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, in 2019. Prior to moving to Oregon in 2017, Naeemaei was active in Iran's environmental movement and involved with several organizations that seek to raise awareness about endangered species and other environmental issues. She has also illustrated children's books, including Mr. Samad and the Little Black Fish, a modern classic in contemporary Iranian culture. In 2016, Naeemaei was the category winner in the Wildlife Artist of the Year Competition, sponsored by the David Shepherd Foundation in London. In 2018, she served on the Twelfth Glenn Gould Award Jury, given every second year to a living individual in recognition of his/her contributions to music and communication. Her works have been featured in renowned international journals and magazines such as Orion, Leonardo, and Feminist Formation.
www.naeemael.com
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
My life got to a point where I felt that I couldn't define myself as an individual human being anymore. All the concerns about environment, social characteristics, religions, and politics looked very relative and fragile. The Jaan series was shaped in that dilemma. The encountering of human and nature in its narration can be categorized in three stages. The first stage is "to feel," which is a starting point for the relationship between me/human and nature/environment. It is basically about observing nature, not only to discover but to understand it. In that stage, I seek perception and comprehension. The second stage is "to heal," in which I try to get closer to nature to play the role of a healer, getting into cracks and wounds and being a bandage over broken bodies. The final stage is "to be," in which there would be no distance, nor distinction between me and nature. It's about unifying with nature, camouflage, intimation, and finally, dissolving in nature. By the end of that stage, there would be no body and soon no trace. I narrate the story by my red scarf to avoid giving a conventional self-portrait. Jaan is a Persian word meaning soul, life, and also dearest. Nature is "Jaan."
From The Presence of Nature, book published by Schneider Museum of Art in conjunction with the special exhibition of the same title.
More information please visit: https://sma.sou.edu/exhibitions/the-presence-of-nature/
a