Press Release

Tribute To Suffering Of Modern Women Launches New Year
At ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries Exhibition

An exquisite, poignant, and sometimes disturbing tribute to the suffering of modern women will launch the new year at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in “Light on Hell & Paradise,” the first American exhibition of the acclaimed photographic artist Howtan.

Internationally known for “Scream of War,” his oversized photo of a kneeling, blood-drenched nude woman, Howtan’s recent exhibitions in Moscow and Rome were sold out. His technically superb works often feature nudes in emotional and dramatic poses with symbolic adornments such as feathers or leaves.

“This is Howtan’s first exhibition of these large-scale illuminated transparencies, and they are visually stunning,” said gallery owner and director Virginia Miller. “The back lighting gives an ultra-realistic, three-dimensional effect.”

Although most of Howtan’s images are exquisite, Miller noted, some are shocking. Howtan has explained that his wrenching images of bloody women seek to pay homage to the suffering that they endure in war and childbirth as well as through physical abuse.

“Great art doesn’t always come in tame packages,” she added. “When a picture give you goosebumps, takes your breath away or grabs you in the guts, you know you are looking at something extraordinary, something that goes beyond representation into high art.”

When the Iranian Shah was overturned, Howtan’s family was forced into exile. Howtan’s earliest memories are of their grief and loneliness. As he grew older, he escaped into “la dolce vita” of Roman society.

“In some of these works we share his feelings of alienation and separation from his family and friends. In others we can find a sense of liberation, of soaring into a world of beauty,” Miller says.

Other images of women in the “Hell” series show suicide, smoking and drinking, and provocative, open-mouthed distortions. According to the artist, these photos are social commentary on the risks of substance abuse, consumerism and superficial glamour. The distortions refer to the current trend of yielding to the idealistic Madison Avenue image of a modern woman through plastic surgery or botox and silicon injections.

Two of the images, “Next in Black” and “Next in Green,” feature pregnant women wearing only with extravagant feather ensembles. “What pregnant woman has not imagined flying away from her discomfort, about taking a flight into frivolity and liberation?” asks Miller.

In the “Heaven” series, a nude woman straddles a huge bouquet of long-stemmed tulips. Another image, titled “Rennaissance,” shows a nude woman comfortably curled upon a bed of tulips. “Tulips close at night and reopen every day,” Miller notes. “Clearly, tulips offer a powerful symbolism open to the interpretation of the viewer.”

According to the Italian author and award-winning critic Achille Bonito Oliva, who observes that Howtan is of Italian-Persian origin, “Hell & Paradise” refers to “two opposite and complementary worlds, a dualism present in the spirit and personality of the artist himself.” The artist’s elegant photographic sets reconstruct situations where emotions are recreated visually “to defuse the drama of inner suffering and experience a feeling of pleasure and liberation.”

“Light on Hell & Paradise” will open with a public reception for the artist from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, Jan. 7th at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries, 169 Madeira Ave., Coral Gables. The works will be exhibited during regular gallery hours, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, through the months of January and February. For more information, call 305-444-4493 or visit the gallery web site at www.virginiamiller.com.

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