Gerd Ghabran

Tabriz-based artist Bobak Kabood unveils his powerful solo exhibition Gerd Ghabran at Azad Art Gallery this May. The showcase centres on Kabood’s monumental 2017-18 oil painting Gerdghabran (170x120cm, oil on woodboard), a visceral meditation on destruction, renewal, and collective memory.

Memory as Landscape, the exhibition’s titular piece depicts the Iranian village of Gerdghabran – a place "wrecked by water" and rebuilt, now haunted by "burnt standing sunflowers". Kabood’s bilingual inscription (Persian/English) on the artwork interrogates the fragility of reconstruction:

"We were ruined... I built here again. They do not release me."

This deeply personal reflection transforms regional trauma into universal metaphor, using layered textures and stark symbolism to explore how landscapes and identities are reshaped by loss.

Born in Tabriz (1988), Kabood is a leading voice in Iran’s contemporary art scene. As founder of Tabriz’s Kabood Atelier Fine Art Gallery (2017) and a member of the Association of Iranian Painters, his practice interrogates place, displacement, and cultural memory. Gerd Ghabran follows his critically acclaimed 2018 solo show at Kabood Atelier Gallery.