NICOLAS MEHDI POUR VAHID
| a66Gallery is pleased to present the solo exhibition „Scarlet Clouds“ by Franco-Iranian painter Nicolas Mehdi Pour Vahid Private Opening: Saturday 12. July from 7 pm -10pm Registration: a66Gallery@gmail.com or whatsapp: +34 618704551 Exhibition: July 15 – September 28 Tuesday – Saturday 10am-2pm Private viewing possible at any time: by appointment: a66Gallery@gmail.com or whatsapp: +34 618704551 Nicolas Mehdi Pour Vahid (born in 1995 in Tours, France) is a young Franco-Iranian artist based in Paris. His painting research draws from an intimate and layered universe where childhood memories intertwine with influences from the visually expressive world of manga and the refinement of Japanese literary culture, merging with the religious iconography absorbed from his mother, an icon restorer. For the artist, childhood has always represented an inexhaustible reservoir of authentic emotions, a mythical and fluctuating time in which the world appears constantly open, immense, and still to be explored. His paintings occupy a fragile threshold, perpetually oscillating between wonder and the loss of innocence. The childish and solitary figures, sometimes accompanied by animals, that inhabit his canvases strongly embody this transitional state: captured in still but emotionally charged poses, they stand at the center of each painting as contemporary archetypes—fragile and powerful, corporeal and spiritual, in a vibrant and rhythmic balance. Emblematically embodying this vision is the series „Scarlet Clouds” (2024), which titles the exhibition and arises as a reflection on landscape, understood not as a naturalistic representation but rather as an inner space, a metaphorical and symbolic sanctuary. In these paintings, forests, mountains, and heavily colored skies are not mere surfaces of color or didactic settings but genuine emotional planes, capable of evoking a necessary elsewhere: a horizon of possibilities that, however, never forgets the nostalgia of times gone by. The young human figure that inhabits, experiences, and traverses it—often static and solitary—imparts a radiant aura to the overall image, contrasting with a nature that, engulfed by movement, manifests itself to our eyes as a bubbling, layered, and alive entity. In line with this sensitivity, the title of the series draws inspiration from „Scarlet Clouds“, translated into French as „Nuages garance”, a collection of short stories by the Japanese writer Yasushi Inoue, known for his “poetic” and “calm” style, even when addressing complex or dramatic themes. In these stories, the world of childhood is depicted with rare depth. Inoue’s children play, laugh, and cry, but when they suddenly and painfully confront adult reality, they develop a new sensitivity that captures the complexity of emotions and embraces feelings previously unknown, such as jealousy, humiliation, and melancholy. The personal note of the artist’s search emerges in the suggestion encapsulated in the title. The clouds, with their imaginative potential, tell us of a naturein its most ephemeral, changeable, and contemplative dimension. They are also metaphors for memory, its fleeting nature, and the profound evocative power that often accompanies it. The scarlet color, on the other hand, besides recalling painting and its paradigms—often associated with drama, sensuality, and theatricality—becomes, in this case, a sort of visual cry, as intended by Henri Matisse. This hue evokes moments of transition, such as dawn and dusk, and the nostalgia that accompanies the end of one cycle or the beginning of another. „Scarlet Clouds” thus becomes charged with poetic tension: a melancholic yet revealing atmosphere that marks a turning point, whether tragic or wonderful. In this light, the paintings of Nicolas Mehdi Pour Vahid become spaces of healing. Text by Domenico de Chirico |