Amir H. Fallah, Dolce Vita, 2021; Original Painting
**These original works are available via private sale only. Please email hello@artforchange.com with your interest.
Amir H. Fallah creates paintings, murals, sculptures, and installations that explore systems of representation embedded in the history of Western art. Combining the visual vocabularies of painting and collage, his ornate environments deconstruct traditional notions of identity formation, while simultaneously defying expectations of portraiture by removing or obscuring the central figure. Born in Tehran, Iran, the Los Angeles-based artist has exhibited work extensively across the United States and abroad. In addition to participating in the 9th Sharjah Biennial in 2009 and being awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant in 2015, Fallah has work in permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Miami, FL; the Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL; and the Xiao Museum of Contemporary Art, Rizhao, China; among others.
Entirely devoid of the human form, Dolce Vita (2021) populates a rectangular frame with foliage that connotes a vibrant, tropical locale. Nestled among the leaves—drawn from disparate regions of the world to reflect, in the artist’s own words, “the entwined pathways of plant life as a result of human agriculture and the migration of Earth’s fauna”—are pieces of silver and bronze jewelry inspired by Gucci fashion house catalogs. A bird and a snake, nearly hidden by the dense flora that surrounds them, also share space with these objects. Although their meaning cannot be definitively determined by the viewer, these objects and animal figures stand in for deeply personal stories that define the anonymous subject’s life. As in many of Fallah’s works, such symbols represent the unique experiences that form the identities of individuals, particularly those who have been stereotyped and Othered.
Amir H. Fallah
Dolce Vita, 2021
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 36 inches
With environmental conservation a central tenet of ART FOR CHANGE’s mission, the artists invited for this exhibition confront and contribute to the move toward sustainability by exploring nature and the environment through content, methods, inspiration, or process. In conjunction with the exhibition, ART FOR CHANGE and Phillips will plant 1,000 trees to help counter the CO2 emissions produced by the art industry.
For this collaboration between Phillips and ART FOR CHANGE, Fallah notes, “Reading Diet for a New America at the age of 14 permanently transformed my perspective on an individual's role in environmental preservation, setting me on a trajectory of activism. The book made me recognize that altering the world begins with personal actions, including the food choices I make and the companies I support, all of which have broad and far-reaching consequences. Today, as parents, my wife and I are committed to imparting our values regarding climate change, waste reduction, and the preservation of natural resources to our son—not only through discussions, but also by exemplifying these principles in our actions.”
Dolce Vita, 2021
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 36 inches
With environmental conservation a central tenet of ART FOR CHANGE’s mission, the artists invited for this exhibition confront and contribute to the move toward sustainability by exploring nature and the environment through content, methods, inspiration, or process. In conjunction with the exhibition, ART FOR CHANGE and Phillips will plant 1,000 trees to help counter the CO2 emissions produced by the art industry.
For this collaboration between Phillips and ART FOR CHANGE, Fallah notes, “Reading Diet for a New America at the age of 14 permanently transformed my perspective on an individual's role in environmental preservation, setting me on a trajectory of activism. The book made me recognize that altering the world begins with personal actions, including the food choices I make and the companies I support, all of which have broad and far-reaching consequences. Today, as parents, my wife and I are committed to imparting our values regarding climate change, waste reduction, and the preservation of natural resources to our son—not only through discussions, but also by exemplifying these principles in our actions.”