Shakti, tree root, wood, fabric, acrylics

Ario Mashayekhi is a creator involved in both visual and performing arts. In his visual art practice, Ario works in both two and three-dimensional media, producing paintings, sketches, and gestural sculptures that explore the human figure as a motif, often pushing the envelope in terms of how figures are rendered. 

Katrina, after New Orleans Flood, acrylics

I like the stylistic variation in Ario’s sculpture portfolio. Some of the artist’s works remind me of pieces by Jonathan Hertzel, in their heavily textured, abstracted quality. Other sculptures feature more polished, rounded edges. In most of his three-dimensional works, Ario makes use of a variety of different raw materials and found objects and pieces of natural wood. 

www.ario.cc

The artist’s paintings, as we saw in our previous feature of his work, have a dynamic, theatrical sensibility -- Ario paints central female figures awash in deep, oceanic blues, with limbs frozen in the middle of a gestural dance.

Four Seasons, wood, plywood, tree branch, wire, mirror, acrylics