Makan (Max) Emadi Art Blog

"Jennifer"

2011-04-24T18:43:00.001-07:00

Actress Jennifer Aniston gets the treatment

"Jennifer" From the Series "Modesty"
2011
8"x 11"
Acrylic on Digital Print

Burka Girl No.2

2010-09-26T11:02:00.000-07:00

2010
From the Ink on Paper Series
5"x7"

Burka Girl No.1

2010-09-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

Burka Girl No. 1
From the Ink on Paper Series
2010
8"x10"

Paris No. 1

2010-04-04T18:49:00.001-07:00

Paris Hilton gets the treatment

From the Series "Modesty"
2010
Acrylic on Digital Print
8"x 10"

Britney No.2

2010-03-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Britney Spears gets the treatment

2010
From the Series "Modesty"
Acrylic on Digital Print
8"x 11"

Lindsay No.1

2010-03-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

2010
From the series "Modesty"
Acrylicon Digital Print
4.5"x 4.5"

Sienna No. 1

2010-03-06T11:18:00.001-08:00

From the Series "Modesty"
2010
8"x 10"
Acrylic on Digital Print

Cameron No. 2

2010-03-06T00:06:00.001-08:00

2010
From the Series "Modesty"
Acrylic on Digital Print
5.5"x 8.5"

Britney No. 1

2010-02-27T21:25:00.001-08:00

2010
From the Series "Modesty"
Acrylic on Digital Print
5"x7'

Marilyn No. 1

2010-02-27T21:22:00.001-08:00

2010
Acrylic on Digital Print
7.5"x 9.5"

Artist Statement on the Modesty Series

2010-02-20T16:52:00.000-08:00

Artist Statement on the "Modesty" Series

The Islamic Erotica series was an exploration of the conflicts between east and west exacerbated by the "War on Terror". The images were seen by many as cautionary tales of negative western influence on Muslim nations.

The work was a parody of the Muslim extremists' worst fears when faced with globalization.
What will happen if the "infidels" take over? Will the secularists "strip" their female population of their cherished honor & integrity?

The paintings morphed cultural traditions that were contradictory but led to the same ultimate result. Over exposure as well as over protection can both be forms of objectification and in turn contribute to the marginalization of women.

"Modesty" considers the parallel universe; the west's great fear: What if the "Terrorists' win? Will there be a revisionist history? Will there be retroactive censorship willed by our new fundamentalist, prudish overlords? Will the "Jihadists" deconstruct the sexual revolution? Will the new Theocracy not rest until all populist images of western "Sex Symbols", past and present, are covered under a veil of "decency"?

Makan Emadi
2/1/2010

"Cameron No. 1"

2010-02-20T09:31:00.001-08:00

Cameron
2010
From the Series "Modesty"
Acrylic on Digital Print
8"x 10"

Megan No.1

2010-02-16T18:46:00.001-08:00

2010
From the Series "Modesty"
Acrylic on Digital Print
8"x10"

Angelina No.1

2010-02-16T18:25:00.001-08:00

2010
From the series "Modesty"
Acrylic on Digital Print
8"x 10"

Iranian Contemporary Art in Santa Ana CA

2009-09-29T19:03:00.001-07:00

Hidden Wounds, Paper Bullets: Iranian Contemporary Art
Curated by Elizabeth Little

November 7, 2009-January 10, 2010
Opening Reception: November 7, 2009 7-10pm. Admission is Free.

Events:
November 5 & 6 Press Preview. To arrange a preview call 714-567-7233
November 6, 2009 5-6pm Panel Discussion with CSUF Professors
November 7, 2009 4pm Curator walk-through with Elizabeth Little
November 7, 2009 5-6pm Keynote Speaker: Peter J. Chelkowski
November 7, 2009 8pm Performance Art Piece by Alina Mnatsakanian
November 10, & December 8 2009 7pm Iran and Contemporary Cinema Film Series
December 5, 2009 5-6pm Panel Discussion with Pepperdine University

On November 7, 2009 the CSUF Grand Central Art Center presents Hidden Wounds, Paper Bullets: Iranian Contemporary Art featuring eight artists of Iranian descent. As a result of the Iranian Revolution of the 1970s, the artists participating in this exhibition explore western culture and Iranian traditions through their art. Unified by their cultural experiences, these artists offer insight into a community torn between democratic and theocratic values, and a Persian past and Islamic present. Showing in this exhibition are: Taraneh Hemami, an installation artist from San Francisco, California, Aydin Aghdashloo, fine artist and illustrator from Tehran, Iran, painter Yari Ostovany from Reno, Nevada, Hadieh Shafie, sculptor and painter from Baltimore, Maryland, Makan "Max" Emadi, a painter from Claremont, California, Shadi Ghadirian, a photographer from Tehran, Iran, Alina Mnatsakanian, an installation and performance artist from Switzerland, as well as archival historic images from the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. Coinciding with Hidden Wounds, Paper Bullets are several panel discussions involving Cal State Fullerton Faculty and lectures by Middle Eastern historians. Keynote Speaker Dr. Peter J. Chelkowski received his PhD in Persian Literature from Tehran University and is currently professor of Middle Eastern Studies at New York University. He has traveled the world studying Middle Eastern performance art and religious rituals. Guest curator and historian Elizabeth Little organized this exhibit. She has lived in Cairo, Egypt and studied Middle Eastern and Islamic history at the University of New Mexico

Curator's Statement:
It is not about politics,
Even though a country was torn apart by it.

It is not about religion,
Even though a country's daily life is driven by it.

It is about the people, the people of Iran.

Hidden Wounds: Paper Bullets: Iranian Contemporary Art discusses the topic of the Islamic Iranian Revolution of 1979, yet this catalyst is not the focus. Instead, the project covers the stories of a group of contemporary Iranian artists whose artworks explore topics from gender issues within an Islamic society, propaganda of small school children, loss of identity, to the sheer physical violence of the Revolution. It is the people that we focus on in this exhibition; their stories, their motivations behind their diaspora which also serves as a constant reminder of what is truly lost�..a home. Despite the anger, frustration or sadness felt having lived through the Revolution of 1979, these artists serve as the example of still a longing to return to, not just a home, but above all a sense, a feeling of being home before everything changed.

- Elizabeth Little, Curator

"Children Are Our Future No. II"

2009-08-19T20:16:00.001-07:00

2009
Oil on Canvas
60"x60" (framed)

Islamic Erotica

2009-05-16T11:24:00.001-07:00

Max Emadi's “Islamic Erotica” series was begun in 2002, following the infamous events of September 11th. In the following weeks and months, I started to feel my “otherness” once again, recalling my feelings from 1979 when my family immigrated to the United States from Iran. The familiar sting reminded me of how I felt as a fourteen- year old entering high school in California without a mastery of the English language, and only days after my countrymen had found it necessary to take a number of hostages from my newly-adopted land’s U. S. embassy. These periods in history, I suspect, made many Iranians feel similarly complicated emotions in our new “western” homes. I was almost ready to address my cultural conflicts through my art then, but it was not until Bush declared war on Iraq that my feelings actually boiled over!

As an atheist, I had always been critical of the state of my home country and the other theocracies of the world. However, I was not entirely a western convert either. Just because I hated the Iranian government more, I was not blind to the hypocrisies and travesties carried out by imperialists in the name of democracy.

In this series, I wanted to examine gender issues from both sides of the aisle. By combining the seemingly contradictory images of Islamic dress and American pinup art, we see a nightmarish vision of a possible future in the Middle East, as globalization and American and European democracy attempt to dominate while fundamentalist traditions hold fast in the region.

Sexism exists in all societies. The sexism of the East is direct. It is most apparent in its mandated repressive female clothing and legal and cultural restrictions on women’s freedom. Here, the double-standard between men and women cannot be denied. Perhaps the West objectifies women more “lovingly”. The traditional art of this culture exalts the “weaker sex,” though with a constant emphasis on her sexuality and little else. Overexposure and the unnatural poses of the female models are most clearly evident in modern advertising, entertainment media, and in the traditional pinup art of the 1940s and 50s. My work juxtaposes these two very different, but related, representations of the female.

I have been criticized by feminists and Muslims alike, but I believe my work supports the positions of both of them! After all, isn’t it true that erotic art, as a tool of sexism in a culture that objectifies women sexually, should really empower women who live in a culture that strips them of their sexuality and the power it brings? A type of image that, in secular societies, has been reduced to a pedestrian tool of commerce, titillation, and subjugation, is anything but that in a theocratic region. It may very well be a tool of revolution!
Islamic Erotica picture gallery

Femme Fatale No.8

2009-01-12T21:32:00.000-08:00

"Femme Fatale No.8"

2008
Acrylic on Canvas
30"x24"

"Silhouette No.5"

2008-09-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

2008
Acrylic on Canvas
30'x 24'

"Silhouette No.6"

2008-09-06T13:26:00.001-07:00

2008
Acrylic by Canvas
36'x36'

"Sheltering Sky No. 6"

2008-08-10T16:13:00.001-07:00

2008
Oil on Canvas
48x48

"Femme Fatale No.7"

2008-07-10T18:44:00.001-07:00

2008
Charcoal & acrylic on paper
8'x10'

"Sheltering Sky No.5"

2008-07-09T20:41:00.001-07:00

2008
Oil on Canvas
30"x24"

"Ms. Freedom"

2008-06-29T09:23:00.001-07:00

Ms. Freedom by Makan Emadi
2008
Oil on Canvas
40'x40'

'Sold'

"Miss Liberty"

2008-02-26T22:33:00.001-08:00

2008
Oil on Canvas
48"x36"