March 2-5  2017

Marginal Utility is proud to present the work of Philadelphia based artist Omid Skekari at the 2017 NADA art fair in New York City.

As an Iranian artist, Omid Shekari channels the crises within the Middle East through an imaginative form of magic realism that blends banal events of daily life with the potential violence that lies just below the entire surface of the globe at any time in history. Through a dexterous command of observational drawing and direct painting, Omid depicts the horrors of the present through images that bear family resemblances to artists such as Goya, Kollwitz and Golub.

Shekari’s paintings embody an Iranian gaze that confronts Western viewers with the harsh realities of the Middle East conflict that have been sublimated and distorted by mainstream media. This glimpse into a perspective that resists co-optation into easy narratives that justify the continued destabilization of international relations is much-needed in these troubled times.

Omid Shekari received a BFA from Soore University, Tehran, Iran (2011) and an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia (2016). Shekari has been a resident at Ox-Bow, Michigan (2015), the 24th Process – Space Art Festival in Bulgaria (2015), and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine (2016).

Shekari also has a solo exhibition at the Cash ‘n’ Carry [Marginal Utility] gallery in Philadelphia on view from 3 February – 19 March.