The Hidden Meanings and Dark Themes in Farshid Bazmandegan’s Paintings
**Farshid Bazmandegan and the Interplay of Art, Politics, and Contradictions in “Drifting in Between”**
**Los Angeles, CA** — In the intimate setting of Track 16 Gallery, Iranian-born artist Farshid Bazmandegan’s latest exhibition, *Drifting in Between,* delves into the intersections of global politics, art history, and the personal displacement caused by governmental actions. Rather than presenting these complex issues through traditional political narratives, Bazmandegan uses vivid, tactile materials—such as tar, steel oil drums, and emergency blankets—to provoke reflection on the hidden hypocrisies of modern democracy, capitalism, and their cultural footnotes.
The artist finds his thematic roots in two seemingly divergent historical threads from the mid-20th century: the CIA’s covert funding of Abstract Expressionism during the Cold War to promote ideals of freedom and democracy and the U.S. involvement in the 1953 coup that overthrew the democratic government of Iran. By marrying the cultural and aesthetic optimism of America’s Cold War art initiatives with the sobering reality of political maneuvering abroad, Bazmandegan’s work raises difficult questions about the true cost of democracy and capitalism.
### **A Political Canvas Made of Symbolic Materials**
The materials Bazmandegan employs are laden with meaning. Steel oil drums, cut and flattened to resemble the geometry of national flags, serve as ironic artifacts of global geopolitics. One such work, “Untitled” (2022), becomes a tangible metaphor for the commodification of nations. Visualized as a flag of three horizontal stripes, its scuffed and scratched surface underscores the damage caused by extractive economies and resource-driven foreign policies. The oil drum—typically a container of fossil fuel—is here repurposed as a bleak representation of how entire regions can be simplified to the resources they provide.
Another recurring material in the exhibition is the lightweight, gold emergency blanket. While functional in real life as an object of survival, in Bazmandegan’s hands, it becomes a potent symbol of displacement and precarious existence. In *“Landscape of Exile” (2024),* the shimmering gold emergency blanket, layered onto tar-slicked wood panels, is deliberately distorted. By singeing parts of the blanket, exposing the glossy black tar below, Bazmandegan creates a painterly surface replete with haunting textures. The aesthetic recalls the visual language of midcentury Abstract Expressionists, an era whose freedom of artistic experimentation was ironically bolstered by covert CIA funding. This historical tie deepens the tension present in Bazmandegan’s work, as viewers are confronted with the collision of freedom’s ideals and its violent political costs.
### **Art, Abstraction, and Geopolitical Contradictions**
Bazmandegan’s references extend beyond materiality to the broader traditions of painting and sculpture. His modestly scaled works, such as the *Abstraction of Absence* series, could easily find a home in corporate art collections, raising uncomfortable questions about art as a commodity. Bazmandegan grapples with the contradictions of participating in an art system entwined with capitalism while critiquing the very mechanisms that sustain it.
Unlike his flat-panel works, Bazmandegan’s larger installations, like *“Arghavan (Redbud)” (2024),* expand his critique into the spatial realm. Employing tree stumps, sand, and industrial materials, the installation recreates an intimate yet fractured environment where survival meets decay. The choice of a redbud tree, native to Iran, imbues the work with personal resonance, tying his homeland’s natural beauty to the deprivation borne out of foreign exploitation.
### **Contemplating Complicity in Contemporary Art**
Through *Drifting in Between,* Bazmandegan critiques not only the broader systems of power that dominate global geopolitics but also the art industry’s entanglements. The exhibition reveals how the art market, much like foreign policy, often prioritizes profit and legacy-building over deeper ethical considerations. This duality—the tension between the intellectually and emotionally enriching world of the arts and its complicity with systemic inequalities—resonates strongly throughout his exhibition.
In this era of heightened political, environmental, and economic crises, Bazmandegan’s work compels viewers to confront their own positions within these tangled systems. Are we passive onlookers, complicit participants, or active agents for change? The artist offers no definitive answers, choosing instead to leave the interpretation—and the responsibility—to the audience.
### **An Exhibition That Goes Beyond the Gallery**
*Farshid Bazmandegan: Drifting in Between* is as much an intellectual prompt as it is an aesthetic encounter. By framing contemporary art’s relationship with geopolitics, Bazmandegan forces us to grapple with questions about beauty and morality in a deeply broken world. Can art still be a force for good? Or is it, like so many other systems, intertwined with mechanisms of harm?
The tension and contradictions