Apr
26
to 31 May

Forouz Zarei: Poems Of Resistance

"Three years ago, I heard a voice from Iran: 'Woman, Life, Freedom.' For me, this slogan was more than a call from my homeland - it was a universal roar. It was a demand for the right to live, to free our bodies from control. It was not just about Iran but about humanity - about reclaiming life itself.” Forouz Zarei Berlin, 2025

John Marchant Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of work by Iranian artist Forouz Zarei.

Born in Tehran in 1984, and raised in the Iranian city of Abadan in the aftermath of the Iran Iraq war, Forouz Zarei studied Fine Art at Islamshahr Tehran University. She later moved to Berlin, where she currently resides with her partner and young family.

For her first solo exhibition in the UK, Forouz presents a collection of delicate and seemingly vulnerable, unframed paintings on paper, with red, blue, pinks and orange touches. We quickly realise that we are looking at gashes, wounds, barbed wire and faceless embryonic figures, hung up, tied down or pushed down by force, and that the lightness of that touch carries the sensitivity of an exposed nerve. These viscerally startling images are often accompanied by lines of Farsi poetry, that counteract and give space to our breathless reading of the paintings.

Forouz’ personal and political struggles living within - and as an exile from -  a violent, oppressive, patriarchal society underpin the thematic concerns of her paintings and constructions. Her work exhibits a complicated duality - the silence and softness of touch in her hand against her stories of brutality, cruelty and complicity of the war machine, which we have all now been witness to.

These tremendously powerful and often upsetting paintings confront and expose the patriarchal, industrial war machine, and the misogynistic theocratic oppression so strongly felt in her home country. Sadly, these themes are universal and not contained to place or time, and Forouz’ work is for all people who struggle against forces that seek to confine them. "It is a form of resistance; an attempt to reclaim what has been mine; I speak of my body and all the suffering engraved within it."

Forouz will also install a new, large scale ceiling mounted fabric work, stitched, dyed and embellished with memories and fragments of poetry in Farsi. There will also be a short  film with an audio narration by the artist of the poem Greatest Wish by Ahmad Shamlou.

After Women, Life, Freedom, I told myself: Be who you were. I have never censored my art, but years of homesickness kept me from engaging in protests ,even abroad. As a dual national, I was always careful. I know that my recent actions could make returning to Iran risky. But my love for Iran gives me the strength to continue. Even small steps matter. When we recognize our role as human beings, no matter how big or small. We must act.”     Forouz Zarei, Berlin 2025

We hope that by doing this show we begin to help to close long held wounds and bring peaceful, balanced and healed energy into the world.

This exhibition has been curated with Alison McKenna.

In memory of Jina-Mahsa Amini, who died at the hands of Iranian morality police,16th September 2022, sparking protest against patriarchal brutality in Iran that spread worldwide.

Solo Exhibitions

2022: Drowned in Tears, Sharif Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2016: Self-Portrait, Gegen Stelle Gallery, Wuppertal, Germany

Group Exhibitions

2025: On Paper, ARTchive, Tehran, Iran

2024: Light Years Ahead, Leicester Gallery, Leicester, England

2023: In Between, Praise Studio, Berlin, Germany

Light Years Ahead, John Marchant Gallery, Brighton, England

Für, Kunstwerden Gallery, Essen, Germany

2022: Conjugation of the Present Dwelling, Sheydaei Gallery, Tehran

2019: Abe and Okuta, Ethereal Trigger, London, England

2016: My Home is My Art, Koblenz, Germany

My Home is My Art, Cologne, Germany

2015: Royal Gallery, Tehran Mon Amour, Munich, Germany

Artist Residency, Munich, Germany

2011: Third Drawing Festival, Dr. Sandozi, Imam Ali Museum, Tehran

2007: First Drawing Festival, Dr. Sandozi, Imam Ali Museum, Tehran,

2005: First Drawing Festival, Karaj, Iran

2004: Islamshahr University, Iran

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Mar
1
to 12 Apr

Jamie Reid: Eternal Ecstasy

John Marchant Gallery is very pleased to present a show of paintings and works on paper by British artist Jamie Reid (1947-2023), focusing principally on a period of work which has largely remained unseen.

Reid trained as a painter at Croydon College in the late 1960’s, alongside his lifelong friend Malcolm McLaren, both of course principal architects of Punk in the mid-1970’s. During the 1980’s Reid was provided with a studio space by Malcolm Garrett at Assorted iMaGes in Shoreditch, giving him the opportunity to return to large scale painting, Reid was well aware of Rudolph Steiner’s colour theories, connecting colour to the soul and for its use in healing and wellbeing. Reid had stated that he wanted his paintings to function as some sort of spiritual elevator, and would have liked to have worked in hospitals, taking his interest in colour theory into new areas. He was always mindful of the potential for improvement in everything - schools, media outlets, healthcare. Like Steiner, Reid removed black from his palette (as being too negative), preferring to use colours to both ground himself and to release his spirit, predominantly using strong yellows and blues, reds and greens. Later, semi-automatic writings - some examples are also included in this presentation - revealed his thoughts on these paintings as well as a host of other subjects which included Universalism, political inertia, colonialism and the Society of The Spectacle. “It may take the future to reveal their translation of time & place & meaning. They are painted & conceived in a trance state of mind…”

The paintings are untitled and unframed, and were not intended to be conventionally stretched. They are here presented simply nailed to the walls of the gallery, alongside framed examples of the aforementioned text works, which Reid worked on relentlessly from the period 2017 to 2023. The archive contains hundreds of examples of both paintings and text works, this presentation being a near random sample. The exhibition also includes one large scale painted hanging from the mid 1990’s that includes screen printed esoteric symbols devised by Reid including his signature OVA glyph, and one collage from the same period to contextualise the direction Reid’s work was taking in his later years.

John Marchant was a close collaborator with Reid, having organised his NYC retrospective show Peace Is Tough in 1997, which travelled internationally. He is also the curator and custodian of the Jamie Reid Archive, which contains work from the late 1960’s through to the artist’s passing in 2023.

Gallery hours are 10am-6pm Thursday and Friday, and 11am-6pm on Saturday. The exhibition is also available to view by appointment.

A free, full colour booklet with an essay by John Marchant is available to visitors.

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Fabrice Cazenave: Blooming Body
Jan
11
to 22 Feb

Fabrice Cazenave: Blooming Body

Fabrice Cazenave’s second solo show with the gallery opens Jan 11th 2025, following an extended research trip to Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex from his home in Paris. Further details to follow.

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ALISON LLoyD:  144 x 30 (2016-2022)
Nov
1
to 14 Nov

ALISON LLoyD: 144 x 30 (2016-2022)

"The land knows you, even when you are lost."  Robin Wall Kimmerer

As part of Photo Fringe 2024, this group exhibition curated by Jane and Jeremy, will bring together the work of artists who explore mankind's physical, emotional, and cultural connection to the land. 

Taking over three spaces within the building at Marine Workshops, this exhibition will feature work by Rhiannon Adam, Alison Lloyd, Kathryn Martin, Véronique Rolland, Eric Hosking, Molly Maltman and Sara Knelman.  Alongside the artworks will be an interactive space with books curated by Photoworks and a bookmaking area.

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ALISON LLoyD: CONTOURING
Oct
26
to 7 Dec

ALISON LLoyD: CONTOURING

We are very pleased to present a solo exhibition of work by Alison Lloyd including photography, collage and drawing.

This exhibition of wall-based work is paired with a presentation of the recent film work ‘144 x 30 seconds’ (2016-2022) at Marine Workshops, Newhaven.

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Delaine Le Bas: Rags of evidence
Sept
7
to 13 Oct

Delaine Le Bas: Rags of evidence

Rags Of Evidence revolves around Le Bas’ concerns around identity - how we present ourselves, how we are ‘read’ by others and how these narratives resonate through our culture. Le Bas has always used her own visual identity in her work, presenting with complicity and playing with archetypes and stereotypes as a Roma woman, challenging others who see her identity as fixed, when its very fluidity is what she is calling in to this very dialogue.

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HANS DE WIT: AFTERSIGNS
Apr
27
to 1 Jun

HANS DE WIT: AFTERSIGNS

Our second exhibition with Hans de Wit, Aftersigns present works selected from drawings rendered at differing scales. Often de Wit makes his meticulous and orphic works at a scale measured in metres. For this presentation we offer smaller, more singular drawings.

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MARCO VILLARD: ANGELS
Mar
9
to 20 Apr

MARCO VILLARD: ANGELS

Announcing the forthcoming show ‘Angels’ by Marco Villard (b.1992, lives and works NYC), following solo and group exhibitions in Athens and Los Angeles with Alkinois Gallery and Lobster Club, respectively. This will be Villard’s first exhibition in the UK.

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ALICE O’MALLEY ‘She’s Fire!’
Jan
13
to 24 Feb

ALICE O’MALLEY ‘She’s Fire!’

Alice O’Malley is renowned for her portraits of New York’s most notorious downtown personalities.

This exhibition has been organised with the kind cooperation of the University of Ulster Art Gallery and The 2023 Outburst Festival in Belfast.

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JEFF KEEN: 100 Years Of Dr Gaz
Nov
11
to 23 Dec

JEFF KEEN: 100 Years Of Dr Gaz

The '100 Years of Doctor Gaz' exhibition will feature large format photographs and film stills, painting, intimate drawings and a rolling presentation of film from the renowned career of one of the UK's most exciting and pioneering artists.

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ALICE O’MALLEY: Community of Elsewheres
Oct
23
to 30 Nov

ALICE O’MALLEY: Community of Elsewheres

Alice O’Malley is a New York photographer known for her portraits of New York’s most notorious downtown personalities. Community of Elsewheres is a queer intersectional space; a circle of celestial elders and underground angels that speak across generations.

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LIGHT YEARS AHEAD
Sept
16
to 28 Oct

LIGHT YEARS AHEAD

Artists… Monica Sjöö, Alice O’Malley, Delaine Le Bas, Vivienne Dick, Ptolemy Mann, Fiona Finnegan, Sandra Vasquez de la `Horra, Forouz Zarei, Jessica Mallock, Sarah Staton, Grace Ndiritu, Jennifer Binnie, Helen Melland and Alison McKenna. Light Years Ahead is curated by Alison McKenna

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L'ORéE
Dec
15
to 26 Jan

L'ORéE

L’orée - new work by Fabrice Cazenave opens at Galerie La Ferronnerie, Paris on Dec 15th - Jan 26th. Please check for holiday opening dates.

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JAMIE REID: TAKING LIBERTIES!
Sept
26
to 26 Nov

JAMIE REID: TAKING LIBERTIES!

Jamie Reid / Talking Liberties!

Taking Liberties! is a rare opportunity to see some of Jamie Reid’s original works that not only established an entire counter-cultural visual aesthetic for the late 20th Century but also continues to be central to protest movements today.

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