Contrary to the title, there doesn’t seem to be a strong scent of simplicity about the paintings that are displayed here together. I believe this points to two factors: one is environment, and the other is a change in the painter’s way of life. Although Omid Masoumi’s paintings often seem improvisational at first glance in their placement of colors and the use of shapes, and remind us of the giddiness of childhood, at a closer look they also draw our attention to our current environment. Triangular shapes that are reminiscent of mountains and colors that remind us of the starry skies of Iran’s dry deserts. It forces us to take a closer look at the environment we live in. This is what often makes Masoumi’s work abstract for me, an abstraction of my motherland, which in spite of its anger, sits in silent watchfulness under the moonlight. This brings us to the second factor, a change in the painter’s way of life. A move in his environment has resulted in the absence of human beings in this series of Masoumi’s paintings, unlike his previous work. Although the shapes and formation of the paintings and the use of color bring to mind a fast and loud rhythm, they are in fact quiet. These quiet triangles smell of silence.

Mohammadreza Shahrokhinejad

2012,June