Biography

Howtan

Born in Teheran in 1974, Howtan and his two brothers were taken to Rome by their mother in 1979, when the Shah was overthrown. Since 1986 he has alternated between living in the United States and Italy.

Although deeply interested in photography since he was 12 years old, he did not consider becoming an artist until he met Professor Achille Bonito Oliva in 2003. Dr. Oliva, professor of contemporary art at the La Sapienza University in Rome, director of the 43rd Venice Bienniale and an important art critic, saw Howtan’s photographs and urged him to exhibit them.

The artist’s first body of work, “Hell & Paradise,” was largely inspired by his life in Roman society. Its poignant images and symbolic use of blood, water, flowers and feathers comment on contemporary women: their joys, their suffering, and the sometimes disastrous consequences of their stressful lifestyles.

Noting the bicultural background of the artist, Dr. Oliva feels that “Hell & Paradise” refers to “two opposite and complementary worlds, a dualism present in the spirit and personality of the artist himself.” The artist’s elegant photographic sets reconstruct situations where emotions are recreated visually “to defuse the drama of inner suffering and experience a feeling of pleasure and liberation.”

EDUCATION:

2001 Master’s Degree in Architecture, La Sapienza University, Rome

1992 Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, (specialization in Construction and Furniture Design), Experimental College (Associated Students of the University of Washington), Rome

Languages spoken: Italian, Persian, English, Spanish

ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS:

2005 ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries, Coral Gables (Miami), Florida, USA

PalmBeach3 Art Fair (represented by ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries of Coral Gables, Florida,) West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

2004 Stella Art Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Moscow International Art Fair, Moscow, Russia

Contarte Gallery, Rome, Italy

2003 Galarah Gallery, Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy

2002 Sprovieri Gallery, Rome, Italy

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

2002 Lipoli & Lopez Gallery, Rome, Italy

OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

DESIGN: 2002-04

2004 Minimal furniture collection for Uniko, Miami

2003 Hi-Tech accessories for Entroterra, Rome

2002 Hi-Tech furniture collection for AD Design, Rome

FASHION: 2000-03

Photographic director of international fashion shows held in Paris, Milan, Catania, Rimini, Naples, Dakar (Senegal), Paris, Nova Goritza (Slovenia) and for the High Fashion Week in Rome

THEATER: 1995-2000

In association with Vincenzo Grisostomi Travaglini, set photographer for some of the most important directors of the theatrical world: Franco Zeffirelli, Emanuele Luzzati, and Maurizio Scaparro, in Tokyo, Rome, Montecarlo, Milan, Bilbao, Tenerife, Ankara, and Málaga

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

2004 Art in America

Manuela Contino, “Travel Between Hell and Paradise”

Josephine Alessio, “Howtan’s Shoots”

Exhibart, “Howtan: His Hell and Paradise”

Stefano Elena, “Howtan on Hell and Paradise”

Fotografare

Specchio Economico magazine

Panorama magazine

Moscow Times

Harpers Bazaar

Commecpchat

Art at Moscow Fair magazine

Hpea magazine

2003 Achille Bonito Oliva, “The Art of Tearing”

AD Architectural Digest

Vernissage

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