Zevitas Marcus is pleased to present Westoxicated, an exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by Taravat Talepasand. This exhibition will be on view January 7 through February 25, 2017 with an opening reception Saturday, January 7th.

Exploring issues of freedom, dignity, and social justice, Talepasand’s body of work speaks to the troubled, yet hopeful, differences between Iran and its women in today’s “modern” society. Drawing from her own Iranian heritage, Talepasand illustrates the uphill battle for democratic rights bred from the dangerous combination of consecrated conservatism bound with sexism, classism, racism, and religious discrimination.

With an aim to dissolve the distinction between what is tolerable and what is taboo, Talepasand’s work daringly dissects the concept of how cultural associations are contorted and conflated, as they cross physical and imagined boundaries. As art critic Brett Levine said, “Perhaps the most unexpected element of Talepasand’s exhibition is its myriad references to classicism, in both her materials and her subject matter. It is as if the visceral nature of her works is mitigated, in part, by the beauty of her surfaces.” Recreating familiar perceptions, paradigms, and cognitive processes through a combination of traditional Persian painting techniques and provocative realism, Westoxicated entices viewers to question the conflicting messages before them.

To create art, it is imperative for me to be vulnerable. Torment and twist—extract the truth from issues with which I need to deal. However, I believe that art has to possess an element of courage in order to provoke change—socially, intellectually and morally, most notable, in a world where ideas of culture, political and intellectual activities are evolving, but not without conflicts affecting generations to come

Taravat Talepasand holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and was the recipient of the Richard C. Diebenkorn Fellowship Award in 2010. Her work has been shown in galleries internationally, including a recent solo exhibition at Beta Pictoris Gallery in Birmingham, AL, and group shows at Guerrero Gallery in San Francisco, CA, and Vane Gallery in New Castle, England. Talepasand’s work is in the permanent collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA; the Center of Contemporary Art in Seattle, WA; the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport, CA; and will be on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art upcoming in 2017. Westoxicated is Talepasand’s first solo exhibition with Zevitas Marcus.