LONDON.- Maureen Paley opened a new exhibition Dinge Weltweit by Köln based artist Behrang Karimi. This is his second exhibition with the gallery and his first solo presentation across the two London spaces. 

“My personal time in the studio starts only by late evening. Then my preparation begins, cleaning, thinking, looking, slowly drawing, reading or not. When I have a good day/night, the focus gets right and it creates energy. I can then forget my body and the time passing and I can draw and paint without thinking in a usual sense. This is mostly what I am looking for. You could compare it with a hunter in the forest, who needs to be very focused and concentrated to not take the wrong step or make too much noise while sneaking through the woods.

Music is the most powerful tool to get your mind into energetic moods. But that is a controlled and conscious move. I choose the music for this special moment in the studio, to get into the rhythm and painting. Music is connected to the body, but more interesting is how emotions work and get stimulated by nearly everything around us. We just learn to not listen to it, because we don't need to in the industrialised world. 

The instinct changed, you don't fear the danger in the dark woods anymore, ‘we have other issues now.’”

Excerpt from an in-conversation between Behrang Karimi and Attilia Fattori Franchini accompanying his solo exhibition SPIT at Braunsfelder, Köln (2021).

Behrang Karimi (b. 1980, Schiraz, Iran) currently lives and works in Köln, Germany. He received a Masters and Diploma from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany (Class of Peter Doig and Albert Oehlen, 2015).

Selected solo exhibitions include: bacchus madness walking experiences, ERMES ERMES, Rome, Italy (2022); Rotpeter: Bild eines zur Dressur gezwungenen, Moon Grove, Manchester, UK (2022); coming for your job and wifes, Tramps, London, UK (2021); SPIT, Braunsfelder, Köln, Germany (2021); Zarinbal Khoshbakht, Köln, Germany (2020).

Selected group exhibitions include: The Age, Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin, Germany (2022); Fifteen Painters, Andrew Kreps, New York, USA (2021); Everything is Personal, Tramps, New York, USA (2020); Alles Notwendige, Braunsfelder, Köln, Germany (2020); Behrang Karimi and Alastair Mackinven, Maureen Paley, London, UK (2019); Here Here, curated by Tenzing Barshee, Braunsfelder, Köln (2018); Eggy and Seedy, curated by Matt Copson and Alastair Mackinven, Reading International Festival, Reading, UK (2017).