As in a dreamscape, fields of color unfold on the canvas and at times create a blurred structure that is reminiscent of an infinite and unbounded space. It almost seems as if floating on a cloud. This feeling of weightlessness is in turn counteracted by strong brushstrokes. The moving color fields in their strong luminosity consisting of bright red, green, yellow, orange and blue interrupt the transparency and settle opaquely on the canvas. Layer by layer, a spatiality generated by colors emerges, vibrating between opacity and transparency and oscillating between contemplation and restlessness. Finally, figurations emerge from these chromatic spheres, some of which are indicated by simple lines, others clearly and distinctly worked out. Sometimes grimaces, sometimes mourning, sometimes frightened figures, whose inner attitude becomes clearly perceptible through the play of colors and lines. In which world do we live? What determines our reality, what our fears and worries? Yet how free are we? An undefined mass of judges seems to accompany us, to question our actions. But who are these agents of criticism, of judgement? They remain identity less and yet discerning. They follow us at every turn and their presence is ubiquitous. The recurring tangled color fields of yellow, orange, blue, green and violet become the embodiment of their figure and the manifestation space of their facial expressions. This audience is not solely an observer, but limits the space of freedom. Whether these critics represent an external mass formed by society, or whether they have manifested themselves in our minds, become our inner critic, which we constantly reproduce ourselves and keep alive, remains open. With great curiosity and passion, Donya Aalipour dedicates her pictorial worlds to the relationship between the individual and the society and examines the structure of the inner, personal world of thought and the outer, social regulations. She creates spaces of contemplation that trigger sensual effects in their mode of representation and, in addition to their visual presence, almost create an audible structure. Silence and outcry, appeal and resignation, inner struggle and external pressure become antagonists in the paintings. In doing so, Aalipour combines reality and fiction and explores the link between individual and society. Social-psychologically and relationally, the painter addresses the social pressure that becomes an incorporated element of our own realities and at the same time questions the status of our agency. In her paintings, Aalipour depicts human relationships, peace and fear, happiness and sorrow, attachment and detachment. Standing on their own yet embedded in a structure, her paintings create a world whose narratives can be joined together. Each painting becomes the basis for the elaboration of another. Aalipour’s painting is characterized by the ability to perform the dance of luminous and saturated color fields with the powerful and unruly lines and to juxtapose this abstract structure with figurative narratives. In this way, the pictorial worlds become spaces of communication that can be experienced not only figuratively but also sensually. They form sites for mind wandering and for self-questioning, of the artist herself, but also of the viewer. Aalipour’s source of inspiration is the flood of images in social media, but also art historical models she encounters in museums and galleries, as well as the human psyche, which she gets to the bottom of through reading and self-awareness. Donya Aalipour currently lives in Vienna. She studied painting at the Tehran School of Fine Arts and moved to Austria to study piano. After two years, her strong interest in painting and creative work led her to drop out of the conservatory and enroll instead at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where she studies under the guidance of Daniel Richter. Aalipour’s first collaboration with O Gallery was a group exhibition titled “Dialogue with the Other” curated by Ali Nassir in Spring 2022, which was her first solo exhibition in Tehran.

-Dr. Anita Hosseini