Artist: Nicky Nodjoumi

Barakat Contemporary presents Iranian-born American artist Nicky Nodjoumi’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, Someone is coming with a flower. The exhibition comprises three works created before the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the first public unveiling of over sixty monotypes on paper produced shortly after the artist's exile to Miami, US, in 1981.

A monotype is created by painting directly with oil paint or ink on a metal or stone plate, and then pressing paper onto it to make a print. It blends elements of painting and printmaking, but its defining characteristic is that it produces a unique work. Nicky Nodjoumi’s 1981 monotypes offer a glimpse into the various motifs and artistic styles that would later become central to his acclaimed paintings. Furthermore, by leveraging the spontaneous and expressive nature of monotype, the artist produced a prolific number of works saturated with uninhibited political dissent, artistic fervor, and autobiographic records at the time.

The exhibition title, Someone is coming with a flower, refers to a sentence written in Persian on Nodjoumi’s first monotype created in 1976, which also serves as the title of the piece. This phrase expresses hope and anticipation for democracy as if foreseeing the imminent revolution. However, as reflected in the works from 1981, that hope was met with the paradoxical reality of an even more oppressive regime. This irony extended not only into Nodjoumi’s personal life leading to his exile but also continues to claim the sacrifices of many to this day.