Vancouver Fine Art Gallery is pleased to present an exquisite collection of paintings by Davood Roostaei. This exhibition showcases Roostaei’s Cryptorealistic paintings focusing mainly on works done in the later years of the artist’s life. The exhibition will be on view in Vancouver at 2233 Granville St. from October 5 through November 12, 2023. An opening reception will take place on Thursday, October 5th from 5 to 10 p.m.
Davood Roostaei (1959-2023) was born in Malayer Iran southwest of Tehran in 1959. Roostaei studied at Tehran’s Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1970s until the Islamic Revolution upended Iranian creative life. Opposed to the new order and as a pacifist to its war with Iraq, Roostaei turned to the overtly political art form of graffiti – and was imprisoned for two years under notoriously harsh conditions for anti-regime activities.
In 1984 soon after his release Roostaei gained asylum in Germany ultimately settling in Hamburg. German art was dominated at the time by neo-expressionism, specifically Die Neue Wilde. This expansive style driven by impulse and engagement suited Roostaei perfectly and he quickly developed his own approach at once gestural and depictive. As he plied and evolved his style, he was able to conflate his infatuation with paint with his fascination with modern life – particularly as of 1986 when he abandoned brushes and began painting with his fingers, a technique he relied on for the rest of his career. In 1990, Roostaei declared his artistic approach “Cryptorealism,” acknowledging the most important conceptual factor in his picture-making: his seemingly abstract explosions of pigment, in fact grew out of figural compositions ranging in theme from the mythical to the quotidian the heroic to the hilarious and these figural forms were subsequently hidden beneath the skeins of pure paint apparent to us. Cryptorealism derived from the Greek term “crypto” meaning hidden or secret is a manifestation of obscured meaning revealed only through layered imagery the grasp of which requires active participation by the observer.
After a decade and a half in Hamburg during which he enjoyed prominence in artistic and social circles Roostaei found he had exhausted his dialogue with German and European art (and politics) and relocated again in 2000 this time to Los Angeles. If Germany provided Roostaei political asylum America provided him spiritual and perceptual freedom; here his void was his own. California indulged Roostaei by leaving him alone as much as by paying him attention. He was painting boldly and furiously and gaining fresh attention when in early 2023 he was suddenly overtaken by cancer.
As he intended Davood Roostaei left behind a legacy of vigour and intensity and as he had hoped its reintroduction begins where he has left off.
Event Venue
Vancouver Fine Art Gallery, 2233 Granville Street, Vancouver, Canada
CAD 0.00