• Created during a period in which Kazem was also deeply engaged with music, the rhythmic structure of
    the Scenes suggests a visual notation of time and sound. Repetition becomes a means of recording experience, while subtle variations in texture and light animate the paper’s surface. As Kazem once observed, “Every material has a secret.” These works embody that conviction, uncovering latent possibilities within the most modest of materials.

  • Kazem’s artistic journey was profoundly shaped by his encounter with Hassan Sharif, the pioneering conceptual artist who became his mentor after the young Kazem left school at the age of fourteen. Through Sharif, he was introduced to a mode of artistic inquiry rooted in experimentation, critical observation, and the questioning of conventions. This formative relationship encouraged him to look beyond representation and toward a practice grounded in process, perception, and the possibilities of ordinary materials.

  • Scene 3, 1993
    Photo credits: Anna Shtraus

    Scene 3, 1993

  • Scene 1 - No.1 - No.4, 1998
    (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
  • The three Landscape (1999) works painted in Hatha included in this exhibition reflect this early engagement with observation and atmosphere.... The three Landscape (1999) works painted in Hatha included in this exhibition reflect this early engagement with observation and atmosphere.... The three Landscape (1999) works painted in Hatha included in this exhibition reflect this early engagement with observation and atmosphere....

    The three Landscape (1999) works painted in Hatha included in this exhibition reflect this early engagement with observation and atmosphere. Yet, as Hassan Sharif later noted, “The meaning or purpose of his paintings lies in the life of the colours and the ways they can be put to use, not in the painted objects themselves.” Rather than depicting a landscape as a fixed image, Kazem explored the sensory and emotional qualities of colour, light, and rhythm, seeking to translate experience rather than representation.