Drawing + Painting |

Close Series

Darius Kian

By Darius Kian

This series was developed as a reflection on masculinity and intimacy in the sport of Olympic wrestling. Close depicts the moments of sensuality and homo-eroticisms within what is otherwise a very direct and violent exchange of power. Exploring the implications of this subversion through oil paint affords the viewer the opportunity to stay within these gasps of warmth and solidarity between acts of domination and athleticism.

Close I (2020)
Oil on Canvas
18″ x 24″

Close II (2020)
Oil on Canvas
18″ x 24″

Close III (2021)
Oil on Canvas
18″ x 24″

Close IV (2021)
Oil on Canvas
18″ x 24″

Close V (2021)
Oil on Canvas
18″ x 24″

Award Recipient

  • Judith Warren Painting Award

Darius Kian

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Darius is a proud queer Persian-Canadian Artist living as a settler on stolen land of the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Kwikwetlem, Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Their current practice concerns themes of masculinity, queerness, and the intersections of identity and culture. Primarily working in oil paint; Darius is also concerned with the relationship that this chosen medium has with representation, sexualization, and historical grandeur. Darius is driven by a need to represent queer bodies, fat bodies, hairy bodies, and colorful bodies into the canon of contemporary figurative painting.
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