Kamrooz Aram

A gorgeously produced monograph on Aram's exquisite conflations of abstraction and decoration

This volume brings together a group of new paintings, collages and sculptural works by Iranian-born, Brooklyn-based artist Kamrooz Aram (born 1978) that continue his exploration of the relationship between painting and ornament and his renegotiation of hierarchies that place the so-called decorative arts beneath the fine arts. Working primarily as a painter, over the past decade Aram has expanded his practice to include sculpture and collage, and he has employed wall painting as a form of exhibition design to unify these mediums in his exhibitions. Aram moved with his family to the US seven years after the Iranian Revolution and entered graduate school in 2001, where mentors such as Coco Fusco and Charline von Heyl imparted to Aram a politically minded and resilient work ethic. He has never lost touch with those paradigms, and his art engages critically with terms such as Western and non-Western.