Raha Raissnia

Miguel Abreu Gallery is pleased to present Sequence 8: One Work, One or Two Weeks, an exhibition wherein, over the course of two months, a single artwork will be on view at our 36 Orchard Street space for the duration of one or two weeks. This sequencing of objects by various artists articulated over time constitutes a break from the traditional group show in which works are relationally installed in space rather than time.

This iteration of the show began with a painting by Alex Carver; it was followed by a work by Florian Pumhösl, sculptures by Rochelle Goldberg, and now drawings by Raha Raissnia. The next artist’s work will be announced on the day preceding its unveiling.

“All the drawings in this multipart work are derived and informed by a set of 35mm slides I selected from an archive of hundreds of images I've made over the years. These particular slides are not part of any film works. They are produced through careful cutting, layering and painting of pieces of 35mm film that were shot with a still film camera, combined with found footage and painted clear leader that are set in glass slide mounts. Before executing the drawings, I scanned the slides and worked on them in Photoshop, and then printed them using a black and white laser printer. Once printed, I cut up parts, rearranged and altered them further. I then transferred the resulting images onto paper using a gel medium. I then sanded out, erased, and drew into them with ink, color pencil, charcoal, and gel medium for texture. The final work on paper is a translation or an interpretation of the film image into what can be called a drawing.

Alluvius alludes to patterns of soil formed and deposited by the flow of a stream. The title functions as a kind of metaphor for this process of translation between film and drawing – a kind of residue taking shape through the flow of energy or activity.”

—Raha Raissnia

Raha Raissnia (b. 1968, Tehran, Iran) received her BFA from the School of the Art institute of Chicago in 1992 and her MFA from Pratt Institute in 2002. In the interim, her interest in avant-garde filmmaking led her to work at Anthology Film Archives (1995–1999), where she has also exhibited. Raissnia presented a solo exhibition of new work in 2017-18 at the Drawing Center (New York). In 2016, her work was the subject of a solo presentation at the Museum of Modern Art (New York) as well as included in the 13th Bienal de Cuenca, and in 2015 her work was included in All the World's Futures, curated by Okwui Enwezor, for the 56th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale. Previously, her work has been featured in exhibitions at The Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), White Columns (New York), Access Gallery (Vancouver), the Museum of Contemporary Art St. Louis, Khastoo Gallery (Los Angeles), Thomas Dane Gallery (London), and The Kitchen (New York), among others. Recent solo shows were held at Ab/Anbar Gallery (Tehran), Galeria Marta Cervera (Madrid), Galerie Xippas (Paris), and the Isfahan Museum of Contemporary Art (Isfahan, Iran). Raissnia’s projection-performances, often undertaken in collaboration with Aki Onda and Panagiotis Mavridis, have been held at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Redcat (Los Angeles), Kunsthal Rotterdam, Arnolfini – Center for Contemporary Arts (Bristol, UK), the Drawing Center (New York), Issue Project Room (New York), Emily Harvey Foundation (New York), and OK LÀ (Montreal), among others. Raissnia’s sixth one-person exhibition at Miguel Abreu Gallery was on display in the winter of 2019. Her work is held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), the Pejman Foundation (Tehran), Colección Inelcom (Madrid), the Pinault Collection, and The Museum of Old and New Art (Tasmania). Selected Works: Raha Raissnia, a monograph dedicated to her work, was published by Ab-Anbar Gallery in 2015.

Her work was included in Greater New York at MoMA PS1 (New York) in 2021-2022. Raissnia will have a forthcoming solo exhibition at Empty Gallery in Hong Kong opening in Fall / Winter 2022.