ADVOCARTSY is pleased to present A Return to the Flesh, a solo exhibition by Pouya Afshar. Aptly titled, the exhibition explores themes of racial inequality and injustice through a series of new, old, recycled, and repurposed pieces that, while predominantly abstract, contain unexpected remnants of the body. Marking Afshar’s third solo exhibition with the platform, this diverse presentation consists of an assortment of oil paintings large and small, pastel drawings, and ink illustrations that demonstrate the artist’s deftness in a wide range of media.
In the artist’s own words: “What I am exploring in these pieces is racialized emotion and how it manifests physically, within our flesh and skin, when we go through racially charged situations. How we metamorphose internally but also externally. How we circulate, assess, and express emotions in physical form. How we process collective guilt, pleasure, shame, or other emotional gains and losses. How the body transforms when we struggle for inclusion and how it reshapes itself when in need of racial contestation.”
Concerned with transformation, the works in A Return to the Flesh are constantly in flux, their perspectives oscillating rapidly amongst simultaneous depictions of human anatomy, animals, landscapes, and abstract forms. Hauntingly beautiful yet bewitchingly terrifying, A Return to the Flesh examines the duality of body and mind, order and chaos— the cyclical, responsive relationship between motion and emotion.
