Peter Blake Gallery: HADI TABATABAI

Although Peter Blake Gallery is temporarily closed, we remain available remotely via phone, email, social media, and by appointment for private previews. We are looking forward to re-opening soon and thank you for your support.

Peter Blake Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of artworks by Iranian-American artist Hadi Tabatabai (b. 1964). In addition to Hadi’s Thread Paintings, this comprehensive exhibition also features his magnetic Wall Pieces, Acrylic Pieces, and the breathtaking multipart installation Transitional Spaces. Like many of the great minimalists, it is difficult to speak of imagery or subject matter in Hadi’s work. Rather, the subject of these artworks is the unique scenarios posed by the compositions and the experiences they cultivate for viewers.

Based in San Francisco, Hadi’s Thread Paintings comprise intimately scaled linear, rectilinear, and gridded compositions made with thread and acrylic paint on aluminum panels. Individual strands of thread are scrupulously arranged precisely 0.0625 inches apart, parallel to the length of the frame, with each end of thread tautly affixed along the horizontal rails of the frame. This arrangement of thread across the framed painting panel leaves a permeable screen of thread floating approximately an inch above a flat base panel.  Acrylic paint is applied to both the thread panel and the base panel, typically in restrained hues such as black, white, and grey. After all the effort employed to meticulously create space in these works—both between the individual strands of thread and between the thread panel and base panel—color activates the works by, of all things, flattening it. With the same hues applied to the thread panel and base panel alike, color effaces the distinct spaces between the threads and the panel. Viewed obliquely, the shifting and permeable compositions transform into sharp focus, creating the illusion of solid geometric shapes