Denny Dimin Gallery

November 01, 2020

Denny Dimin Gallery

Amir H. Fallah: The Facade Project
Institute of Contemporary Art San José

The ICA San José presents The Façade Project with a major mural commission from Amir H. Fallah and opens its doors to become an Official Vote Center for November 2020 election.

“Now, more than ever, it is crucial to make artworks that speak to the issues of the day which is why I am I’m thrilled to be collaborating with the ICA San José to realize a work that addresses themes of social justice, inclusion, empathy, and humanity in such a public way.”

- Amir H. Fallah

Mayor Liccardo speaking at the ICA San José to kick off the voting festivities. Image courtesy of the ICA San José.

Amir H. Fallah: The Facade Project includes a 50ft mural enveloping the front of the building, and two 6ft circular paintings that offer an entirely new conception of the relationship between the street and the building’s architecture.

Appropriating images from across history, geographical regions, popular and art historical sources, and personal and universal references, Fallah deftly creates new meanings through a fully original language of vibrant color. He presents text and images from children’s books interspersed with visual quotations from Persian miniatures, illuminated manuscripts, American propaganda imagery (primarily around wars in South and Southeast Asia), and widely dispersed paraphernalia such as matchbooks. With this web of sources, Fallah points to his own navigation of Iranian and American identity, reminding us that being American today often means one does not identify solely with any single nationality or heritage. It is his insistence on the complexity of identity, parsed through the language of painterly delight, that makes Fallah such a powerful inaugural artist for the ICA San José Facade Project.

The ICA reopened its doors yesterday as an Official Vote Center for the election.

The artist Amir H. Fallah outside his studio with part of his work “Remember This.” An enlarged version is now wrapped around the Institute of Contemporary Art San José. Credit: Maggie Shannon for The New York Times.

SELECTED PRESS

"Come to Vote, Stay for the Art," by Carol Pogash in The New York Times

“San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art’s artistic message: Get out and vote,” by Sal Pizarro in The Mercury News

“Can This Colorful Polling Center Inspire Voters?” by Elizabeth Varnell in C: California Style Magazine

INSTALL DOCUMENTATION

UPCOMING EXHIBITION

We are pleased to announce Amir H. Fallah’s next solo exhibition at Denny Dimin Gallery in New York, “Better a Cruel Truth Than a Comfortable Delusion,” will open January 9, 2021.

Amir H. Fallah, Dying for Invisible Lines, Killing for Invisible Gods, 2020.

For sales and press inquiries, contact Elizabeth Denny (+1-917-215-3723, elizabeth@dennydimingallery.com) or Robert Dimin (+1-917-445-7956, robert@dennydimingallery.com).