Susan Eley Fine Art is pleased to announce the opening of All Her Number’d Stars: Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures by Jason Noushin. This is the first solo exhibition for the artist in New York City, following the success of his participation in SEFA’s group exhibition: Beyond the Ban: Contemporary Iranian Art, held last summer to benefit the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a non-profit based in Brooklyn, NY. We will celebrate the opening of the exhibition with a reception for the artist on Wednesday, January 10, 6-8 pm.

Jason Noushin was born in England and raised in Iran. He lived in London before moving to the US in 1997, where he has since lived in Connecticut. Living a life seeped in multi-cultures informs his work, which reflects a play between the Middle East and the West and explores the intersection of seemingly disparate elements. Returning to the language of his childhood home, Noushin incorporates Persian calligraphy in many of his paintings and sculptures. Farsi transliterations of poetry written by British literary greats such as Keats, Hawthorne and Shelley, are drawn across his canvases and reflect a reconciliation of the cultures that have shaped him.

According to Noushin, “What brings me back to my studio every day is the challenge of growing and getting closer to understanding the source of my ideas. Why do I do what I do and how can I improve? I draw on my sculptures and create relief sculptures on linen canvases. Persian calligraphy has been a prominent feature recently—that and leaves from old comic books—but, the foundation has always been drawing.” And indeed, fragments of old comic book leaves from Tintin or Batman find their way collaged onto Noushin’s canvases, nestled alongside the beautiful, curved forms of traditional, handwritten Persian.

This marriage of pop and high culture feels seamless and natural under Noushin’s refined hand, as he applies his unique mix of oil, shellac, ink and pencil to linen. Noushin will sometimes even use traditional Persian spices in his canvases—turmeric and saffron—a further nod to his Iranian heritage.

Noushin’s current series of paintings feature the same female figure as protagonist, painted crouching, sitting with legs crossed or in full form standing. Almost always seen in profile, she is a constant creative companion to the artist.

The paintings comprise the central artwork in All Her Number’d Stars, the title derived from a phrase in Milton’s Paradise Lost. The exhibition also features sculptures and drawings on antiquarian paper that reflect the unusual and far-reaching talents of the artist from many worlds.

Most recently, Noushin was one of four artists representing Connecticut at the deCordova Museum Biennial (2016); and he exhibited with Janet Rady in “The Ocean Can Be Yours” in London (2017). His works were also included at Courtyard Gallery in the UAE in “Image of Self”. Noushin has shown his work at CONTEXT Art Miami 2016, 2017. He is currently showing at Brown University in “Crossing Borders” at the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities.