Asad Faulwell

Asad Faulwell was born in Caldwell, Idaho in 1982, and graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2005 and Claremont Graduate University in 2008. While at Claremont he was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant.

Asad Faulwell’s practice sits on the cusp of post-colonial modernity, exploring forgotten histories through a dense pattern language of painterly compositions. It raises questions pertaining to themes of memory, absence and power within dominant narratives.

Faulwell's mixed-media paintings reference several visual traditions of religious iconography and cultural ornamentation, incorporating decorative motifs based on Islamic textile, varied architectures, mosaics, illuminated manuscripts, and art history.

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Asad Faulwell's practice sits on the cusp of post-colonial modernity, exploring forgotten histories through a dense pattern language of painterly compositions. It raises questions pertaining to themes of memory, absence and power within dominant narratives.

Early in his practice, Faulwell produced a series of works on Les Femmes D'Alger, giving homage to the forgotten Algerian women who fought alongside their male counterparts in the war of independence from French occupation between 1954-1962.

Faulwell's elaborately painted and collaged work employs imagery both beautiful and macabre. Sumptuously coloured and patterned surfaces form the backdrops for his female portraits whilst his large-scale abstract paintings appear as devotional shrines.

His recent body of work explores cultural and national identity through Iranian mythology, using archetypal figures like kings, queens, and magi pulled from various eras of history dating back to the Iranian people's nomadic origins. These figures, often depicted as masked and anonymous contain within them vignettes that relate to more specific ancient and recent historical and political events in Iran. In this way, all modernity is embedded in the mythology of the past while simultaneously becoming a part of it.

Faulwell has participated in numerous solo exhibitions most recently Phantomsmagoria, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, USA, 2022; An Unrealized Dream, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, USA, 2020; Climbing a Disappearing Ladder, Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai, UAE, 2019; Phantom, Denk Gallery, California, USA, 2018; In the Heart of the Cosmos, Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai, UAE, 2017; Shapeless Shackles, Bill Brady Gallery, Missouri, USA, 2016; Obelisk Movements, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, USA, 2014; Bed of Broken Mirrors, Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai, UAE, 2014; Pins and Needles, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Missouri, USA, 2013; Empty Vessels, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, USA, 2012; and Les Femmes D'Alger, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, USA, 2011.

Recent group exhibitions include: Common Bonds, UCSB Art, Design and Architecture Museum, California, USA, 2019; Insight/Foresight, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Missouri, USA, 2019; Human Nature, The Pit, California, USA, 2019; Unexpected Encounters, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Missouri, USA, 2018; In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art, LACMA, California, USA, 2018; and The Collector's Room, The Epsten Gallery, Missouri, USA, 2017.

His work is part of many private and public collections including the collections of Crocker Art Museum, California, USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), California, USA; The Perez Art Museum, Florida, USA; University of Chicago Booth Collection, Illinois, USA; Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), California, USA; UCSB Art, Design and Architecture Museum, California, USA; Ulrich Museum, Missouri, USA; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Missouri, USA; The Pizzuti Collection, Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, USA; The Oppenheimer Collection at Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Missouri, USA; The Franks-Suss Collection, London, UK; The Rubell Family Collection, Florida, USA; The Nerman Family Collection: Morton G. Neumann Family Collection, New York, USA; and The Deighton Collection, London, UK.

He lives and works in Newport Beach, California.