Any other business

  I have already written on this blog about Reza Shafahi . The latest news about Reza is that the Spanish magazine Apartamento , which published a joint interview with Reza and his son Mamali, along with photos by Mamali's sister Melika, has now issued a book devoted largely to his work. The launch took place in New York yesterday, Thursday May 18, 2023. Here's a link to Apartamento 's own coverage of the event.

Despite the catastrophic impact of U.S. sanctions on the Iranian economy, now compounded by the Covid-19 health crisis, somehow Tehran's art scene soldiers doggedly on. There's even something of a ' movida ' in the air, as galleries established in the north of town open up spaces in the newly-trendy mid-town area, home to the Pejman Foundation's spectacular conversion of an old brewery into a multi-purpose contemporary art centre: the Argo Factory . The bravest have also creatively revamped their business models to continue, exchange rates notwithstanding, to appear at international fairs  - if and when, these days, such events actually go ahead. Interestingly, what in the west is called 'outsider art' or ' art brut ' (according to Wikipedia , 'art by self-taught or naïve art makers') is quite a strong component of the contemporary art scene in Iran, where it isn't confined to specialist spaces, but shown by 'mainstream' galleries...