Kour Pour, Samsara: DEPART Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Depart Foundation presents Samsara, Kour Pour’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, curated by Nicola Ricciardi. The exhibition will coincide with Art Los Angeles Contemporary 2015.
Samsara by Los Angeles-based Kour Pour includes new paintings and related installation works that continue the artist’s recent carpet painting series. In the first iteration of the series, historic examples of carpets were directly appropriated from auction and museum catalogues; in the new works the artist has created original compositions that juxtapose sets of imagery that are stripped from their own temporal context by the use of today’s technologies —Google Images, clip art CD-ROMS Photoshop—and then re-contextualized on canvas through months of painstaking labor—generating a scenario that brings to mind a “networked bazaar of history and futurity.”
Just as the Sanskrit word, Samsara, has slightly different meanings in different belief systems; Pour’s work is purposely open to interpretation depending on the cultural entry point of the viewer. By sourcing material from different locations, traditions and time periods, the large canvasses, with their warp and wefts, act as nets gathering information without an apparent hierarchy. These flat surfaces contain images of hunters and gatherers, religious icons and mystical creatures, merchants, lovers and warriors. Annexing both the past and the future into the present, the paintings on display bend and blend different temporal planes and enhance non-linear narratives, highlighting Pour’s interest in the cyclic life of the material world.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a forthcoming publication, in collaboration with Nero Publishing and featuring an essay by Nicola Ricciardi.
ABOUT KOUR POUR
Kour Pour (b. 1987) is a British born, part-Iranian artist. He graduated from Otis College of Art and Design and lives and works in Los Angeles. Pour’s work involves the meticulous, detailed and elaborate large-scale painting of Persian rugs which take several months to complete, incorporating many techniques including an under-painting using a broomstick, silkscreen printing, sanding and hand painting. His works have been included in group exhibitions at Roberts & Tilton and Steve Turner Gallery in Los Angeles. Pour’s first solo exhibition was presented at UNT/TLED Gallery, New York in 2014 and he was the youngest artist featured in the 2014 Artists to Watch exhibition in Miami. In October 2014, Pour's exhibition Ozymandias was presented at Ellis King, Dublin.
ABOUT NICOLA RICCIARDI
Nicola Ricciardi (b. 1985) is an art critic and curator. He received a M.A. from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) in New York in 2014 and he currently lives in Milan, Italy. He contributes regularly for several art magazines and he is Editor-in-chief at “Carnet de miart”, the official digital publication of Milan’s International Modern and Contemporary Art Fair. In April 2015 Nicola will become Director at Stackwood’s, a soon to be opened residency program in Milan dedicated to art and literary criticism whose goal is to promote slower forms of knowledge, production and circulation.
DEPART FOUNDATION
Depart Foundation is an emerging arts organization predicated on the discussion, exhibition and production of art and is dedicated to the development and support of contemporary artists whose work and careers are departing from their previous endeavors or predecessors.
Since its founding in 2008, Depart Foundation has served as a catalyst for the Italian art and cultural community, strengthening the dialogue between Italy and the international art world. Like multiple outposts in Europe and U.S., Depart Foundation has actively encouraged artistic production through sponsorship of young and established artists and the provision of spaces and resources conducive to the research, production and exhibition of new work and to the presentation of educational and public programs.
Some of the most interesting and dynamic artists of our time, from around the world, have been presented for the first time in Rome by Depart Foundation. They include Cory Arcangel, Joe Bradley, Nate Lowman, Ryan McGinley, Tauba Auerbach, Darren Bader, Louis Eisner, Roe Ethridge, Sam Falls, Mark Flood, Elias Hansen, Brendan Lynch, Oscar Murillo, Sarah Braman, Seth Price, Jon Rafman, Stephen G. Rhodes, Amanda Ross-Ho, Sterling Ruby, Lucien Smith, Valerie Snobeck, Frances Stark, Oscar Tuazon, Cao Fei, Mario Garcia Torres and many others.
The Depart Foundation has supported the Italian art community, presented local artists in cities as far as New York and Los Angeles and collaborated with important art institutions in Italy and beyond including, among others, the Macro and MAXXI museums in Rome, the American Academy in Rome, the Serpentine Gallery in London and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
All images courtesy of DEPART Foundation & Nicola Ricciardi.
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Kour Pour, Chanting, Humming All Day Long, 2014. Acrylic on canvas over panel, 96 × 72 in. -
Kour Pour, Caravan, 2014. Acrylic on canvas over panel, 96 × 72 in
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Kour Pour, Future Buddha, 2014/15. Acrylic on canvas over panel, 96 × 72 in
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Kour Pour, Hypnotize (Biggie, Biggie, Biggie), 2014. Acrylic on canvas over panel, 96 × 72 in
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Kour Pour, In your Seventh House, 2014/15. Acrylic on canvas over panel, 96 × 72 in.
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Kour Pour, Masters of the Sky and Sea, 2014. Acrylic on canvas over panel. 96 × 72 in.
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Kour Pour, Memoirs of a Merchant, 2014/15. Acrylic on canvas over panel, 96 × 72 in
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Kour Pour, Vlisco–The True Original, 2014. Acrylic on canvas over panel, 96 × 72 in.
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Kour Pour, The Holy Mountain, 2014. Acrylic on canvas over panel, 96 × 72 in.
