ECHOES: Shaqayeq Arabi and Fereydoun Ave

For the inaugural exhibition at Shiva Zahed Gallery, we are pleased to present echos, a duo exhibition featuring the work of Shaqayeq Arabi (b. 1974, Tehran, Iran - lives and works in Dubai) and Fereydoun Ave (b. 1945 Tehran, Iran - lives and works between Paris and Tehran).

This presentation marks a significant moment for the Turkish art scene, bringing together two pivotal Iranian artists of different generations who, while currently based in Dubai and Paris, find a shared resonance in the study of the ephemeral. In an era often defined by instability and uncertainties, echos serves as a deliberate pause—not as a retreat from the world, but as an invitation to engage with it through a more precise, diagnostic lens. The exhibition inhabits a space of productive ambiguity, where the trembling line, the rhythmic imperfection of repetition and the quiet weight of a fleeting gesture are transformed into a purposeful narrative.

Fereydoun Ave, a cornerstone of the Iranian art world for decades, brings a mastery that prioritizes a composed, soulful restraint over mere minimalism. His paintings act as a living archive of memory, where a floating fig leaf or a bleeding pomegranate feels like a pressed secret, weightless yet anchored by deliberate structure. Each smudge and bloom in Ave’s work allows a passing moment to settle into a permanent state of poetry, reflecting a life of deep cultural immersion and influential mentorship. 

This seasoned perspective is placed in a resonant dialogue with the work of Shaqayeq Arabi, whose sculptures embody the tension between chaos and resilience. Utilizing an unfiltered, instinctive approach of assembly, Arabi transforms desert detritus and salvaged urban debris—palm fronds, metal mesh and rusted rods—into new, entangled ecosystems. Her sculptural silhouettes appear ghostly and fragile, yet they possess a defiant endurance, mirroring the current global state where strength is often found within the precarious and the discarded.

By pairing Ave’s seasoned mastery with Arabi’s innovative materiality, the exhibition bridges the gap between memory and possibility. These works do not seek definitive resolutions; instead, they honor the unresolved and the modest through acts of profound care and intuitive play. In a cultural landscape that often demands urgency and spectacle, echos asks the viewer to slow down and find presence within the transient. It is a sophisticated introduction to the gallery’s mission: to provide a borderless platform for narratives that transcend geography, asserting that art remains a universal, living language even—and perhaps especially—within the fragile.