Y Z KAMI (b. 1956)


Portrait

Y.Z. Kami was born in 1956 in Tehran but studied philosophy at Berkeley, California and at the Sorbonne in Paris before moving to New York. In recent years his work has been widely exhibited at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art (2006) and at the Istanbul Biennial (2005). Most recently, his work was featured in "Think With the Senses, Feel With the Mind" curated by Robert Storr at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. Kami's work is built around huge portraits of ordinary people - portraits which disturb and unbalance due to their great size. His work is both luminous and meditative possessing an almost mystical effect when you stand before them. Like icons, they look at you and through you at the same time, and the viewer's response is similar.


Above: Y Z Kami, Conversation in Jerusalem, 2005




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