JTF (just the facts): A total of 10 photographic works, hung against white walls in the entry area and the upper gallery space. All of the works are combinations of color photographs (1, 2 or 4) mounted on dibond with custom wooden structures, some with mirrors, made between 2011 and 2014. Physical dimensions range from roughly 32x40x1 to 83x83x9, and the works are available in editions of 3 or 5. The show also includes 1 sculpture made of mirror, plaster, wood, and lacquer, from 2013 (sized 60x20x24, in an edition of 2), 2 embossed paper works from 2014 (each sized 30×30, in editions of 3), and a custom piece of wallpaper from 2013. A small catalog of the exhibit is available from the gallery. (Installation shots and up close details below.)

Comments/Context: One of the byproducts of the digital revolution in photography has been the creation of a brand new subgenre of work that might be called “pictures constructed of pictures”. These works play on the malleability and reproducibility of digital files, allowing arrays of tiny, almost illegible images to be laid out edge to edge like tiles in a mosaic, creating larger patterns that resolve when seen from afar. It’s a kind of digital age Pointillism, where the brushstrokes of painting have been replaced by a sea of carefully selected images.

Because these kinds of works are made from individual component images that are vanishingly small, photographers have quickly realized that there are new possibilities for juxtaposition, irony, and contrast by constructing larger pictures out of smaller ones with an opposing purpose – Rashid Rana has made intricate Persian carpets out of bloody slaughterhouse images, Alex Guofeng Cao has recreated portraits of Marilyn Monroe out of the Mona Lisa, and Iranian-born Sanaz Mazinani is now following along in these same conceptual footsteps with her elaborate patterned works made from images of war. From a distance, Mazinani’s works look like intricate, vaguely Islamic ornamentation, where geometries repeat and interact in strict order, echoing textiles, tile patterns, and kaleidoscope mirroring. Up close, the works reveal themselves as a catalog of wartime activity: contrails of fighter jets blasting through the clouds, fiery explosions with billows of smoke, angled stealth bombers in formation, and flag draped coffins lying in state.

While simple image mirroring is now a tired digital cliché, Mazinani’s works build mirroring into complex sculptural ornamentation that juts out from the plane of the wall, object-quality beauty a clever diversion from the underlying content. These patterns offer us a conceptual investigation of modern image desensitization, reminding us that photographs of howitzers, soldiers, and aircraft formations are now so commonplace that we gloss over their inherent violence. Mazinani pushes this visual numbing further, turning stealth bombers into graceful quilted latticework, placing the two opposing viewpoints into an uneasy dance. As Mazinani extends and develops this visual vocabulary further, her intermingling of the harsh and the lyrical will likely become even more powerful.

Collector’s POV: The photographic works in this show range from $4500 to $9000 based on size. Mazinani’s work has little secondary market history, so gallery retail remains the best option for those collectors interested in following up.