Neo-Allegorical Art

Bahman Akhavan is a graduate of Harvard University Graduate School of Design.  His art is defined by the meticulous and sensitive depiction of human expressions and ideas expressed with allegorical imagery.

Collating a range of inspirations from Persian poetry, Greek mythology, Russian novels, and German opera, Bahman paints metaphors and figures to build the vocabulary and idiom of his art.  Brightly colored and richly textured canvases depict often familiar and decidedly representational figures, set against and surrounded by a multi-layered background of symbols and references.  It is in the transformation and juxtaposition of the subject with other allegorical figures and images that the story is communicated, a new idiom created, and a new set of allegories introduced – the Neo-Allegorical.

The Impulse Series

As an inherently ambiguous object representing both promiscuity and prevention, Bahman uses condoms as the medium to express both individual responses and cultural/societal reactions to otherwise familiar settings.  Thus, the viewer’s response becomes incorporated into the impact of the art work forming a new meaning.  The innocent encounter in the park becomes infused with lust, the thoughts of a man engrossed in mundane activities becomes charged with the lure and the consequences of forbidden activities, and the societal practices are challenged when juxtaposed with cultural mores.

The Ben Series

In his Ben series, Bahman reverses the background/foreground relationship of portraiture, both reinforcing the meaning and the interplay of design elements. The meticulously painted portrait of Ben Franklin/$100 bill is used at once as the background and the subject.  Instead of the conventional representation of the physical/material world, the Ben icon in Bahman’s works represents the observer/narrator, in essence taking a role in the telling of the story or setting the stage for an allegorical statement.  On one level, there is an experiment with the ambiguity present in Ben’s expression; never knowing if he is smiling, playful, angry, bored, sad, sarcastic, etc.  On another level, by changing the context and relation of the Ben portrait to the other images, the idea of popular/consumer art icon is expanded and challenged.  Rather than stripping the iconic image of any meaning, Bahman’s Ben, in its essence and in its relation to other players on the canvas, transmits a cogent meaning inherent in each piece.