Gums are the two areas of firm pink flesh at the top and bottom of your mouth, in which your teeth are fixed. Some things can become a buffer, a veil, or even a hindrance for other things, such as form for concepts and destination for paths. Mohammad Mosavat says that for him the joy of writing takes precedece over the meaning of each individual word: before meaning overshadows the very joy of writing. His paintings are thus a dialect for him before being a means of expression. The paintings of Mosavat’s recent series, “Gums,” range from mythology to childlikeness and from realism to abstract art.
He is a witty artist and an acute wanderer in the medium and material, sometimes using theater as his medium of choice and at other times, he makes use of painting. Mosavat has already held a number of painting exhibitions and also staged several theater performances. For him, however, painting is always painterly and performance is always performative, each true to its unique medium.
Elements of coffee-house painting and lithography as well as ancient mythical figures, alongside modern details and words scattered here and there on Mosavat’s paintings, are all like traversers out of Persian myths and stories, closely connected to the author’s view. Pondering over imaginary characters and exploring the colors, patterns, and experimentation in coloring, are among the features of Mosavat’s paintings that can sometimes be reminiscent of a blueprint for a general plot. Mosavat narrates contemporary stories in archetypal forms, in some of which we see the traces of the style of his teachers, and, in other cases, they are born out of his experimentations: happenstance.