Through April 2—"The Fire Next Time" Opening Reception/Exhibit of Kamran Moojedi's Recent Work at Sharq Gallery

Nahid Massoud and Robert Rosenstone invite you to attend an art exhibition featuring the recent works of Kamran Moojedi, "The Fire Next Time,” mixing pigments and pixels.

"The Fire Next Time," (with homage to James Baldwin) Kamran Moojedi’s mixed media works of sketches, digital paintings, and photography intends to be a powerful investigation of death and rebirth in nature and in culture. Before this recent series, and for over twenty years, Moojedi has been engaged in a collaboration with his computer, plotter, mouse and stylus to create what are some of the most extraordinary digital images of our age. In his memorable series of portraits of Andy Warhol, what began with curved lines changed to straight lines and ended up as numbers that made up the image of Warhol. Moojedi subsequently created stunning images of such cultural icons as Stephen Hawking, Woody Allen, and Nelson Mandela.

"The Fire Next Time" consists of more personal works, motivated by the great San Bernardino Mountains fire of 2003, which came close to destroying Moojedi’s studio. As he explains, these new pieces are not meant as an illustration of the fire and what it left behind, but rather, they focus on archetypal elements that took him back to ancient Persian mythology and ritual. The works are a meditation on the concept of duality in Persian culture, first taught by Zoroaster, using it as a way to come to grips with the contradictions in his own life.

Born in Tehran, Moojedi left to attend art school in Turin, Italy, then went on to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where he received his Master of Fine Arts degree and remained to teach for six years. Following that, he worked for seven years as a multi-media designer and art director at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. The 1979 revolution left Moojedi stranded in the United States. He compares the Islamic revolution to a wildfire, flaming out of control, burning equally the guilty and the innocent, the past and future. Like fire, revolution can be considered destructive and evil or as a purifying and cleansing agent. The trauma of the San Bernardino fire and it's aftermath made Moojedi face a series of unpredictable changes in his life including seeking a closure with his past. For the first time, he went back to his homeland and spent four months in Iran.

"Seeing Tehran after 25 years, I experienced strong emotional surges of highs and lows. One moment I was filled with excitement, the next with despair. It felt much like the first time I saw the burnt forest. This place had no resemblance to the home I remembered. I was lost.”
The way of finding himself again was through the process of creation. After Moojedi’s return to California, the twin experiences of the fire and of his homeland came together in his new works:

“As I began reworking the Fire series from the alien landscape, bringing together elements from within and without, mixing pigments and pixels, something familiar started emerging in the artwork, which was generic and not limited to this particular tragedy. It was not a representation of time and space in a two-dimensional format; rather, it was an expression of emotional and psychological interactions with those realities."

The resulting works in his superb new series, "The Fire Next Time" contain some of the most compelling and insightful images being created today in any medium.

Exhibition runs through April 2, by appointment SHARQ, 537 Arbramar Ave, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. RSVP. 310.454.6826. Email rsvps. Directions: Sunset Blvd one block west of Temescal Canyon; turn left on El Medio, go four blocks; turn right on Miami Way; turn left at first corner, Arbramar 537 is fourth house on the right; SHARQ is located down the driveway at the back of the property.

News From Levantine Cultural Center

The Levantine crew (that's us, with your help!) will be starting a great new season in April, to include monthly salons, concerts, art exhibits and major shows, among them "Alchemy of Dreams" in September at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. "Alchemy of Dreams" will be a special feature of the third edition of the World Festival of Sacred Music, and features two great groups, Suzanne Teng's Mystic Journey with guest artist Prince Diabaté, and the phenomenal Naser Musa and Adam del Monte Ensemble doing new Arab-flamenco world beat. Both acts will include dance performances, the latter with the fiery Laila del Monte.

The great news is that we are in line to recieve a major grant! Yes, guys: after working hard for more than three years on a strictly volunteer basis—bringing you more than 250 programs—Levantine Cultural Center may soon have a chance to really shine, with funding from the County of Los Angeles. We have already twice been awarded these opportunties by the Los Angeles Arts Commission, in both 2004 and 2005, as a featured organization in the special Ford Amphitheatre Summer Series.

However, we now have the opportunity to stretch our wings and grow, with a county arts grant. Now is the time for each of you to show your support by taking out membership in Levantine Cultural Center. Why? The more active members we have, the more we can justify the receipt of city, county, state and federal support for Middle Eastern cultural arts programming. Active membership show funders that we continue to grow; that we are relevant; that we serve a determined audience—you! So whether you can join us at the regular $120 a year level (that's just $10 per month) or at the $60 level (just $5 per month), we ask you to click here, go to our Membership page, and sign up through PayPal today. And please tell your friends! The more the merrier. We know how to stretch a dollar; our overhead is kept extremely low, and we really use our imagination to make the most of what's financially available. So your membership dollars will go further than ever in 2005, particularly with the receipt of the county grant.

Do you have any questions? Please call us at 310.559.5544! And thank you, shukran, toda, merci.



To book Middle Eastern musical ensembles, comics or dancers, contact Jordan Elgrably, 310.559.5544.