ArtDayMe : Standing before this canvas by Figo Birjandian feels like encountering a scene from a delightful autumn day. It is perhaps one of Figo’s most endearing pieces, housed in the collection of Shahab Tavaf, gently pleasing the eye and offering calm. The carefully chosen palette and the large scale of the painting play key roles in shaping this atmosphere, even as Figo remains loyal to the aesthetic that defines his work: drawing attention to the physicality of paint and the meaning-making potential of material.

Created in 2019 with a mixed-media technique, the piece spans 200 by 150 centimeters and immediately engages the viewer with an explosion of texture and color. Its composition is non-hierarchical, recalling an “all-over” structure: patches of pigment cover the entire surface, preventing the gaze from settling on a single focal point.

The palette—greens, reds, oranges, purples, and yellows—set against earthy browns and grays, generates depth and a lively rhythm. Bright yellow and orange flecks sparkle like flashes of light within the dense weave, while greens and reds stage a visual tension between warmth and coolness.

The work’s heavy, material surface gives the canvas a three-dimensional quality; pigments and media are laid in successive layers, each mark asserting a tangible presence. This materiality, together with the swift, sometimes swirling gestures of the tools, imparts a sense of measured movement, as if the viewer’s gaze begins to dance with the strokes.

Despite the absence of linear perspective, the layered interplay of darks and lights creates a resonant, mist-filled space, its depth arising from optical energy rather than formal geometry. The abstract setting evokes nature — a thicket, a forest in fall — without resorting to figuration or narrative clues. At its core, the painting captures the restless vitality of life and a fertile sense of chaos.

Within Birjandian’s oeuvre, works like this continue his exploration of the expressive language of “matter,” turning painting into a field of energy. The luminous colors emerging from a dark ground introduce an emotional register oscillating between exhilaration, hope, and release, offering a sensorial, almost bodily experience of viewing.

This canvas stands as a distinctive example of contemporary abstraction — an approach that elevates matter to a central role, forging a vivid, kinetic expression from the turbulence of pigment and texture.

Figo Birjandian held his first solo exhibition in February 2025 at Ariana Gallery, Tehran, presenting selections from three series of works — all of which were sold. Born in Tehran in 1989, Birjandian is a self-taught painter who grew up in an art-loving family and absorbed painting from his surroundings. After studying at the Canadian University of Dubai, he pursued painting professionally, and his bold narratives on monumental scales soon drew the attention of art institutions.

This painting is part of the Shahab Tavaf Collection.