The current work accentuates the artist’s strategy of employing fusion and torsion to re-signify and de-contextualize symbols and cultural icons. The digitally juxtaposed surfaces are to explore visual symbolism and examine our duality and sense of self.

At a closer examination, binary relationships such as sacred/profane, and traditional/modern begin to emerge. In his recent series, Salehi’s crafted photographs suggest an elaboration of meanings, where contradictory notions can coexist in a kind of visceral harmony and aesthetic contrasts.

As an Architect Artist, Kourosh Salehi is part of a group of post-revolution Iranians who have merged East-Western traditions and have invented a new language of exile. He moves between different media, from paintings to sound works, photography and video, sometimes fusing them in a complete installation, mixing fact and fictive. His style is narrative driven yet not always easily accessible. His installations feature characters from stories of the artists own journey with hints of existing and real personalities.

“Unlike other Iranian diaspora artists whose work is often steeped in sentimental mythology, Sufi practice or blatant politics, Kourosh’s is none of these. His hybridity of belonging, evident in both the form and content of his work, evinced a meticulous cross-fertilization of cultures, transcending ancient and modern, east and west, and in this regard is considered as one of the significant painters of his generation. Identity plays an important role in Salehi’s work.”
Janet Rady, Art Critic and Curator