TEHRAN – Works by six Iranian artists were showcased during the 1st edition of the MENART Fair in Paris.

The Shirin Art Gallery, a major art center in Tehran, had selected the artworks by Katayun Ruhi, Kurosh Shishegaran, Shahriar Ahmadi, Sepehr Bakhtiari, Hamid Ajami and Hanieh Delecroix Tabatabai for the exhibition, which came to an end on Sunday.

The MENART Fair is the first international modern and contemporary art show dedicated to artists from West Asia and North Africa (Middle East & North Africa), presented by major galleries.

The art fair was launched by Laure d’Hauteville, the founder and director of the Beirut Art Fair. She is also the founder of the Singapore Art Fair

Joanna Chevalier, a curator and artistic director of the Beirut Art Fair, is the president of the MENART Fair.

Over 20 international galleries gathered for four days at the private mansion of the Cornette de Saint Cyr auction house in Paris to showcase works by artists from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and several other countries at the exhibition, which opened on May 27.

“This new fair in a confidential format offers an initiatory journey to the heart of a demanding selection of more than sixty modern and contemporary artists, most of whom are recognized in their respective countries,” the organizers said in a statement for the fair.

In an introduction to the exhibition, D’Hauteville said “Relatively little known to audiences, the contemporary artistic mosaic of MENA is still young.”

“Several ‘moderns’ have asserted themselves there, now internationally recognized, and the young generation of contemporary artists is among the most numerous on the international art scene.

“This new generation is unparalleled in its richness and diversity, its fertile ebullition, its languages, which converge or contradict each other forming an unexpected mirror of the world! At the crossroads of Eastern and Western codes, a singular creative syntax is taking shape before our eyes, conveyed in a potentially global way: it’s a generational fact, amplified by this technological groundswell that now connects all points of the planet at the moment.”

Photo: Acrylic on canvas by Hamid Ajami was showcased at the MENART Fair in Paris.

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