Canadian Artist Parviz Tanavoli’s Bronze Gleams in UBC Museum of Anthropology

STRAIGHT.COM
By Robin Laurence

Oh Persepolis II, a sculpture that’s part of a UBC Museum of Anthropology show.

CANADA---Few of Parvitz Tanavoli’s West Vancouver neighbours know that he is one of Iran’s most acclaimed modern artists. Perhaps his understated local status will change, however, when Safar/Voyage opens at the UBC Museum of Anthropology this Saturday (April 20). A survey of contemporary works by 16 Arab, Iranian, and Turkish artists, the exhibition promises to introduce Vancouverites to a range of ideas and practices from a region of the world that is little understood in the West. Among the video, installation, performance, and photographic works on view is Tanavoli’s striking "Oh Persepolis II." Nearly two metres high, it is executed in bronze so highly polished that it gleams like gold. "Safar/Voyage" is at the UBC Museum of Anthropology from Saturday (April 20) to September 15. [link]