Our Wonderful Culture is an innovative Artist Collective established in the mid-1980s by the international award-winning artist Hercules Fisherman.
This initiative is inspired by a radical & inclusive approach to gallery practise, using flexible working methods and collective decision making to promote established and emerging contemporary artists.
It is our intention to bring light onto a wide range of cultural art practices with the use of the newest technology allowing the best-in-class offline and digital experiences for international art lovers and investors.
Our Wonderful Culture is proud to announce it’s collaboration as Main and Technical Partner with We R The Nomads supporting Firouz FarmanFarmaian’s exhibition ‘Gates of Turan’ for the Kyrgyz Republic Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
Building on the foundations of the Central Asian pavilion in 2005, The Kyrgyz Republic participates for the first time in its history as a dedicated country pavilion in the 2022 International Art Exhibition. Curated by Janet Rady, the exhibition investigates the immaterial substance of memory through the sourcing of archaic cosmogonies across sacred material, derived semiology and spiritual realms. The artist draws inspiration from what he defines as a nomadic displacement, the result of his childhood exile following the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution that led him to investigate his clan’s tribal past and in this instance, the hereditary ties linking him to central Asia, Kyrgyz culture and to the myths and epics related to the idea of Turan.
In order to elaborate on this ethnogenesis vision, the artist traveled to Kyrgyzstan in 2021. Informed by the close cultural ties to the land of his birth, he channeled his ancestral heritage into researching current day crafts practices inspired by the Kyrgyz national epic, the Manas. Travelling into the remote highland regions of YSSIK KOL and NARYN, his immersions within the tribal and nomadic cultures resulted in a collaboration with the local craftswomen and the creation of textile based installations through a multiplicity of elements including raw yak wool, felt, Kyrgyz yurt structures and locally sourced pigments. Elaborating on the multiform versatility of his post tribal explorations; his retrofuturist sensibility and preservationist planeterism, for Gates of Turan the artist has layered these traditional nomadic elements with sound and video installations, added to an additive augmented mixed reality proposal.
ABOUT
History, memory and the post-tribal inform the work of Persian-born artist Firouz FarmanFarmaian, whose lifetime of living in exile in Paris, in Andalusia and in North Africa profoundly influenced both his creative practice and individual character. “It is circumstance that ultimately shapes lives,” says the artist, whose work seeks to actively engage in bridging dialogues between past. and future, east and west, archaic craft and innovative technology. As such, his compositions possess a vivacious and spontaneous energy, as well as a deeply symbolic quality, which speaks to a multiplicity of currents in ecology, politics, art and philosophy.
Originally rooted in Persian lore and focused on themes of nature, architectonics and interplay between realism and abstraction, FarmanFarmaian’s ever evolving body of work presents deep underlying explorative segments united by common motifs of movement and texture. The raw and visceral emotion of his pieces is tempered by material properties often produced and sourced within the framework of tribal collaborative craftsmanship. Each work is the result of careful contemplation of the techniques and tools that will achieve a singular aesthetic and emotional intention. These in turn are deftly combined to create a unique visual rhythm across a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, film, music and AR.
Firouz FarmanFarmaian lives and works between Andalusia and Athens.
Based between London and the United Arab Emirates, Janet Rady is a specialist in the field of Islamic and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art. Janet holds a first class Masters’ Degree in Islamic Art History from the University of Melbourne, and a BA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Janet is a member of many professional bodies including Finarta, The Private International Art Network, The Arab British Chamber of Commerce, The Advisory Council of CARAVAN, and The Council of the Iran Society.
Her expertise and knowledge have led her to become a nominator for the V&A Jameel Prize, curator for the Benetton Foundation Imago Mundi Project (UAE and Bahrain collection), and a Judge for the Khor Online Art Initiative. Janet was appointed to join Chiswick Auctions in 2020, as a specialist in Modern and Contemporary Middle East and African art. Janet will also be collaborating on future projects with Our Wonderful Culture as special advisor and curator.
Our Wonderful Culture is an innovative Artist Collective established in the mid-1980s by the international award-winning artist Hercules Fisherman.
This initiative is inspired by a radical & inclusive approach to gallery practise, using flexible working methods and collective decision making to promote established and emerging contemporary artists.
It is our intention to bring light onto a wide range of cultural art practices with the use of the newest technology allowing the best-in-class offline and digital experiences for international art lovers and investors.
Throughout the years, Our Wonderful Culture has promoted the work of Yoko Ono, Lucian Freud, Allen Ginsburg, Lee Bowery, William Burroughs, Robert Indiana, Gilbert and George, Robin Dutt, Richard Hamilton, Rose English, Richard Long, Deborah Levy, Jessica Voorsanger, Bob & Roberta Smith, Bruce McLean, Lennie Lee and others taking art into alternative spaces with a view to communicating directly with a broader non traditional cultural audience.
This approach allows Our Wonderful Culture to reach a wider range of the public, introducing contemporary fine art culture to as many people as possible. Our Wonderful Culture sees art practise as a broad definition which can include film, performance and digital media alongside traditional painting, sculpture and literature.
Coming soon
Our Wonderful Culture is an innovative Artist Collective established in the mid-1980s by the international award-winning artist Hercules Fisherman.
This initiative is inspired by a radical & inclusive approach to gallery practise, using flexible working methods and collective decision making to promote established and emerging contemporary artists.
It is our intention to bring light onto a wide range of cultural art practices with the use of the newest technology allowing the best-in-class offline and digital experiences for international art lovers and investors.
Our Wonderful Culture is proud to announce it’s collaboration as Main and Technical Partner with We R The Nomads supporting Firouz FarmanFarmaian’s exhibition ‘Gates of Turan’ for the Kyrgyz Republic Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
Building on the foundations of the Central Asian pavilion in 2005, The Kyrgyz Republic participates for the first time in its history as a dedicated country pavilion in the 2022 International Art Exhibition. Curated by Janet Rady, the exhibition investigates the immaterial substance of memory through the sourcing of archaic cosmogonies across sacred material, derived semiology and spiritual realms. The artist draws inspiration from what he defines as a nomadic displacement, the result of his childhood exile following the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution that led him to investigate his clan’s tribal past and in this instance, the hereditary ties linking him to central Asia, Kyrgyz culture and to the myths and epics related to the idea of Turan.
In order to elaborate on this ethnogenesis vision, the artist traveled to Kyrgyzstan in 2021. Informed by the close cultural ties to the land of his birth, he channeled his ancestral heritage into researching current day crafts practices inspired by the Kyrgyz national epic, the Manas. Travelling into the remote highland regions of YSSIK KOL and NARYN, his immersions within the tribal and nomadic cultures resulted in a collaboration with the local craftswomen and the creation of textile based installations through a multiplicity of elements including raw yak wool, felt, Kyrgyz yurt structures and locally sourced pigments. Elaborating on the multiform versatility of his post tribal explorations; his retrofuturist sensibility and preservationist planeterism, for Gates of Turan the artist has layered these traditional nomadic elements with sound and video installations, added to an additive augmented mixed reality proposal.
ABOUT
History, memory and the post-tribal inform the work of Persian-born artist Firouz FarmanFarmaian, whose lifetime of living in exile in Paris, in Andalusia and in North Africa profoundly influenced both his creative practice and individual character. “It is circumstance that ultimately shapes lives,” says the artist, whose work seeks to actively engage in bridging dialogues between past. and future, east and west, archaic craft and innovative technology. As such, his compositions possess a vivacious and spontaneous energy, as well as a deeply symbolic quality, which speaks to a multiplicity of currents in ecology, politics, art and philosophy.
Originally rooted in Persian lore and focused on themes of nature, architectonics and interplay between realism and abstraction, FarmanFarmaian’s ever evolving body of work presents deep underlying explorative segments united by common motifs of movement and texture. The raw and visceral emotion of his pieces is tempered by material properties often produced and sourced within the framework of tribal collaborative craftsmanship. Each work is the result of careful contemplation of the techniques and tools that will achieve a singular aesthetic and emotional intention. These in turn are deftly combined to create a unique visual rhythm across a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, film, music and AR.
Firouz FarmanFarmaian lives and works between Andalusia and Athens.
Based between London and the United Arab Emirates, Janet Rady is a specialist in the field of Islamic and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art. Janet holds a first class Masters’ Degree in Islamic Art History from the University of Melbourne, and a BA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Janet is a member of many professional bodies including Finarta, The Private International Art Network, The Arab British Chamber of Commerce, The Advisory Council of CARAVAN, and The Council of the Iran Society.
Her expertise and knowledge have led her to become a nominator for the V&A Jameel Prize, curator for the Benetton Foundation Imago Mundi Project (UAE and Bahrain collection), and a Judge for the Khor Online Art Initiative. Janet was appointed to join Chiswick Auctions in 2020, as a specialist in Modern and Contemporary Middle East and African art. Janet will also be collaborating on future projects with Our Wonderful Culture as special advisor and curator.
Our Wonderful Culture is an innovative Artist Collective established in the mid-1980s by the international award-winning artist Hercules Fisherman.
This initiative is inspired by a radical & inclusive approach to gallery practise, using flexible working methods and collective decision making to promote established and emerging contemporary artists.
It is our intention to bring light onto a wide range of cultural art practices with the use of the newest technology allowing the best-in-class offline and digital experiences for international art lovers and investors.
Throughout the years, Our Wonderful Culture has promoted the work of Yoko Ono, Lucian Freud, Allen Ginsburg, Lee Bowery, William Burroughs, Robert Indiana, Gilbert and George, Robin Dutt, Richard Hamilton, Rose English, Richard Long, Deborah Levy, Jessica Voorsanger, Bob & Roberta Smith, Bruce McLean, Lennie Lee and others taking art into alternative spaces with a view to communicating directly with a broader non traditional cultural audience.
This approach allows Our Wonderful Culture to reach a wider range of the public, introducing contemporary fine art culture to as many people as possible. Our Wonderful Culture sees art practise as a broad definition which can include film, performance and digital media alongside traditional painting, sculpture and literature.
Coming soon
Virtual Tour
