Until 25 June 2026, AVA Gallery is holding Now, Still We Gather, an exhibition curated by Iranian artist, curator, and scholar Behrang Samadzadegan. The show, which brings together nineteen artists from the region, explores how art can create spaces of encounter and dialogue during a period marked by fragmentation, uncertainty, and shifting cultural realities. The exhibition embraces multiplicity, displaying artworks that coexist through proximity rather than through stylistic or ideological agreement.
As Samadzadegan explains in the curatorial statement, the show emerged from a state of interruption rather than from a fixed curatorial thesis. Shaped by practical limitations, logistical challenges, and the availability of existing works and archives, Now, Still We Gather reflects the realities that influence contemporary artistic production. The exhibition transforms these constraints into a framework for connection, allowing unexpected relationships to develop between works that originate from different contexts, experiences, and artistic languages.
The show is inspired by Higher Power, an installation by British artist Chris Levine presented at the 61st Venice Biennale. Levine described it as a “beacon of hope and unity,” advocating for “making light, not war.” While Samadzadegan’s exhibition resonates with this sentiment, it approaches the idea of unity from a more nuanced perspective. Here, unity is not a given condition but an ongoing practice, a fragile and provisional process that emerges through coexistence, conversation, and shared presence.
The exhibition is based on the notion of what philosopher Walter Benjamin described as a constellation: a gathering of seemingly disparate fragments whose significance emerges through their juxtaposition. The artworks on view do not attempt to resolve contradictions or construct a singular story. Instead, they create a field of difference in which distinct voices remain visible and autonomous. The show encourages visitors to engage with these differences, highlighting the value of plurality in contemporary cultural discourse.
Among the featured artists are Mehrdad Afsari, Faezeh Baharlou, and Elham Etemadi. Afsari’s photographic practice introduces a reflective engagement with image-making and its conditions of production. His works consider how photographic meaning is shaped through context, framing, and repetition, positioning the image as a site of construction rather than simple documentation.
Faezeh Baharlou works in painting and mixed media, creating compositions that move between figuration and abstraction. In her practice, she often explores psychological states and personal narratives. Through layered surfaces and subtle visual symbolism, Baharlou constructs poetic spaces where memory, identity, and imagination intersect.
Elham Etemadi‘s work combines contemporary sensibilities with references to Persian visual culture. Her paintings feature dreamlike landscapes, symbolic imagery, and figures that seem suspended between reality and imagination. Themes of transformation, memory, and emotional experience recur throughout her practice.
Also on display are artworks by Shohreh Mehran, Niloofar Rahnama, and Neda Saeedi. Mehran paints contemporary Iranian scenes and people, particularly in the urban and social context of Tehran, focusing on human experience, memory, and emotional vulnerability. She develops visual narratives that examine the tensions between personal histories and broader social realities. Her compositions frequently invite introspection, creating a dialogue between inner and outer worlds.
Niloofar Rahnama‘s practice, which encompasses painting and installation, is informed by personal experience; it often responds to themes such as motherhood and the emotional impact of everyday life. Rahnama’s paintings evolve through repeated layering, in which forms emerge, disappear, and reappear beneath successive coats of paint. This method mirrors her interest in memory, emotion, and transformation.
Meanwhile, Neda Saeedi draws on architecture, urban planning, environmental history, and historiography to investigate the ways power is embedded within landscapes, buildings, and social structures. Her installations often transform archival research and historical narratives into immersive spatial environments. They explore themes of modernisation, land ownership, segregation, and the relationship between human bodies and the built environment.
The show also features Sanam Sayehafkan and Soraya Sharghi. Sayehafkan employs vivid colour palettes, linear structures, and layered compositions to produce paintings that oscillate between clarity and ambiguity. They depict dense, illusionistic visual worlds where narrative and perception remain deliberately unstable. Drawing on references from art history and contemporary literature, Sayehafkan’s work unfolds as open-ended storytelling and invites viewers to project their interpretations onto the image.
In her practice, Soraya Sharghi constructs elaborate mythological universes populated by hybrid female figures, fantastical beings, and symbolic environments. Inspired by Persian myths, fairy tales, and contemporary visual culture, she reinterprets historical iconographies through a contemporary lens. Densely layered and vividly coloured, Sharghi’s compositions merge painting traditions with elements of print and decorative techniques.
The exhibition’s title itself carries a sense of determination and continuity. The phrase “Now, Still We Gather” suggests that gathering remains meaningful even under difficult circumstances. This idea becomes particularly significant within a cultural landscape shaped by mobility restrictions, geopolitical tensions, and the fragmentation of communities.
Now, Still We Gather does not offer solutions to contemporary challenges, nor does it seek to erase differences between artists and perspectives. It proposes art as a space where encounters remain possible. The show affirms the enduring capacity of creative practice to sustain dialogue, foster connection, and generate hope. In a world increasingly defined by division and uncertainty, the simple act of gathering, however provisional or incomplete, becomes an act of cultural resilience.
To learn more about Now, Still We Gather, please go to the exhibition’s official web page.
You might also be interested in viewing Interwoven at the House of Arts, Expo City Dubai.
