Artist

Yasi Alipour is a recipient of several awards, including the Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant (2022) and Sharpe Walentas Studio Program Award (2019/2021). Her work has been exhibited in the United States and internationally, including Transmitter Gallery (2022), Bavan Gallery (2022), the Geary Contemporary (2021), Secca (2020), Venice Biennale (2019, IT), and many more. Yasi holds an MFA from Columbia University, a BS in Computer Science from the University of Iran, and is a Faculty at Columbia University, Parsons, and SVA.

Iranian artist Yasi Alipour's latest exhibition, "The Desire to Be a Corner (Listen)," showcases her unique approach to exploring systems of math, language, and history through intricately folded pieces of paper. Her artistic practice, which weaves drawing, sculpture, installation, performance, writing, and lectures, is grounded in her personal experiences as a SWANA Femme exploring the legacies and possibilities of her interrupted history and spaces of silence.  

The exhibition features Alipour’s most recent series of works-on-paper, or folds as the artist refers to them. Alipour’s process is one of mark-making. Hand-folding paper results in intricate geometric patterns that, when held in relief on the surface, produce drawings. Deployed on varying surfaces—cyanotype and black pigment coated papers—Alipour’s folds generate echoing shapes, and recurring, unexpected geometries. The cyanotype folds, awash in blue, are punctuated by unexpected passages of light, and watery, radiating forms.In this iteration of recent works, Alipour puts her focus on the ideas of interiority and different approaches to measuring time. The folds and creases trace the movement of the hand, capture the light, reveal geometries held within, expose the fibers of the paper, and reveal unexpected images.

“Alipour folds sheets of inkjet paper coated in black ink, or cyanotype paper, in careful geometric patterns to leave visible white creases.If Alipour’s technique were even slightly different, the pieces, both inkjets, could easily look overbearing or obsessive. But the labor-intensive precision with which her lines are placed is counterbalanced by the slightly frayed quality that folding paper actually produces, giving them instead the welcoming warmth of a fine textile. In the dreamy, beautiful cyanotypes, meanwhile, sharp triangles cut through soft blue clouds but never lose their edge.” Will Heinrich, New York Times

Visitors are invited to explore Yasi's unique approach to folding, geometric abstraction and cameraless photography, which has been praised for its ability to captivate viewers and spark meaningful conversations that go beyond logic and historical erasure and move towards new imaginaries to face issues of political and social justice.