Aida Chehrehgosha

Born in Teheran, Iran 1979 I Lives and works in Stockholm.

The painting-like qualities of Aida Chehrehgosha’s photography are striking – the sensitively balanced values, well-calculated lighting, overall composition and placement of agents in scenery that spurs the imagination, calling to mind the Barbizon school’s suggestive interpretations of chiaroscuro. But the aspects of beauty and precision in craftsmanship and composition stand in stark contrast to the content of the work – isolation, obsession, violence, and death. The imagery is often grand, presented in series that revolve around an inferred narrative. They evoke video recordings and it is easy to imagine the registered moments as parts of a performance. But the photos can also depict desolate spaces and places, just after, or close to, a dramatic event that has occurred – a crime scene photo of sorts. The interiors, which are difficult to place in time, create an uncertainty before the depiction – are they recollections, or a recording of the present? Chehrehgosha addresses issues of identity and guilt, where unpleasantries may derive from memories, morbid fantasies and hypnagogic states. But the frightening aspects also contain elements of humour, which in some sense disarm the anxiety-tinged associations.

Chehrehgosha studied at Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, Sweden (2003 – 2009) and at Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, Sweden (2009 - 2010). Her works have been exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions and group shows at, such as Artipelag, Värmdö, Sweden, Eskilstuna Konstmuseum, Eskilstuna, Sweden and the Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland.

Galerie Forsblom has been representing Aida Chehrehgosha since 2016.