Train Art Exhibition

Artist: Karim-Allah Khani
Location: Kerman, Iran
Year: 2014
Researcher: Parisa Tehranizadeh

An Iranian artist has illustrated her painting and portraits on a traveling train and has drawn the portraits of the viewers. Karim-Allah Khani is an artist who has performed this work of art for the first time on a train that travels between Mashhad and Kerman.

This artist said that this mobile art exhibition is a mutual work of Joupar train rail line and me, which was performed last January 2014. However, holding such an exhibition and continuing it requires significant, permanent cooperation of the Iranian Railway system. The vast and unique reflection of this first innovative work has encouraged Joupar Railway Company to establish that in other trains too.

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He has claimed that this is not just a painting exhibition but also a new concept and idea in the field of new generation art. His purpose was to bring the art between people and do not limit that to the galleries and exhibition.

He said that as he is permanently traveling in different cities, he sneaks to different train coupe and saloons and draw passenger’s portraits for free which has attracted lots of attention and people have greatly supported that.

In his recent performance, not only he had exhibited his previous work and portrait but also he spent time with passengers who were viewing his work and drew their portraits too.

He had several interviews with his subjects and most of them found this work quite amazing and stated that this has shortened the time and made it easier for them to stand the 20 hours journey between these two cities.

Regarding the style of his work he says that he has used his usual professional style and the normality of his views didn’t influence his style.

The other unique feature of these painting was the various sizes of the works, which were perfectly matching the train coupe dimensions.

In his personal view, most of the artist will be isolated and limit themselves to their galleries and personal tools for creating a work of art. But he has overcome this fear and brought his work to the society and created art among the ordinary people.

In his idea, public art can be a symbol of democracy in a society as it can make a strong interaction between the artist and his viewers and lead to cultural exchange and promoting the value of a society.

Social interactions in public areas is an important phenomenon which is required in a society to promote the level of citizens knowledge and understanding about art which can lead to quality improvement of artists works.

This work has been rewarded by many organizations in iran. Karim-Allah Khani was born in 1975 in Neishabour, IRAN and has been tutoring many students as a faculty member of Kerman University. He has also presented his works in more than 10 national and international festivals.

His recent works have been nominated as a top Iranian environmental art and illustrated in South Korea exhibition.

All copyright belongs to Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University.

Progress Agency