Ali Banisadr's First US Survey Exhibition 'The Alchemist' at Katonah Museum of Art

Ali Banisadr's first US survey exhibition, 'The Alchemist,' is on view at the Katonah Museum of Art until June 29. Organized by director and chief curator Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe, the show spans works from 2006 to 2022, tracing the Iranian-American artist's evolution through turbulent semi-abstractions and confronting figurations. Early paintings like 'Things Fall Apart' and 'The Center Cannot Hold' (both 2007) feature bright blue skies and luminous hues, while 'Black' (2007) depicts poetic collapse. By 2012, 'It’s in the Air' (208 x 305 cm) presents an emotional typhoon with mad birds and tempestuous scenes. Recent works such as 'The Caravan' (2020) and 'Queen of the night' (2022) explore nocturnal blues and flickering brushstrokes, with 'These fragments I have shored against my ruins' (2022) incorporating elements like a serpent and the Statue of Liberty. Banisadr's paintings blend biblical antiquity with contemporary urgency, using a Renaissance-era palette to capture motion, discord, and human survival amidst chaos.