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proudly presents a rare and exclusive conversation with internationally acclaimed contemporary artist

Y.Z. KAMI

The Messenger

Y.Z. Kami will be joined by two of the most respected voices in the world of art: legendary curator and art historian Dr. Fereshteh Daftari and renowned art critic, curator, and educator Dr. Robert Storr. Together, the three will explore Kami’s remarkable artistic evolution, the philosophical and spiritual dimensions of his work, and the themes behind his celebrated portraits, paintings, and abstract compositions.

This unique dialogue offers audiences a rare opportunity to hear directly from Kami in conversation with two of the foremost scholars and curators who have engaged deeply with his practice across decades.

About Y.Z. Kami

Y.Z. Kami is a renowned contemporary artist whose paintings, drawings, collages, and sculptures explore the relationship between physical presence and inner life. Known for his meditative portraits—often based on his own photographs—Kami employs soft, atmospheric brushwork inspired by Byzantine frescoes and ancient funerary painting traditions. His work also includes abstract series informed by poetry, sacred architecture, and contemplative repetition, such as Endless Prayers, Domes, and the Night Paintings. Born in Tehran in 1956, Kami studied philosophy in Paris before settling in New York in 1984, where he continues to live and work. His art has been featured in major international exhibitions, including the 52nd Venice Biennale, and is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, and the British Museum, among others. Recent surveys of his work have been presented in Spain and across multiple institutions in Florence.

About Dr. Fereshteh Daftari

Fereshteh Daftari is a curator and art historian who received her Ph.D. in Art History from Columbia University (1988). During her tenure at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1988–2009), she curated a number of international exhibitions including Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking (2006). Her curatorial work in the field of Iranian modernism includes Between Word and Image at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery in 2002, and Iran Modern at the Asia Society Museum in New York in 2013. She has also focused on contemporary art—organizing Action Now in Paris (2012); Safar/Voyage in Vancouver (2013); and Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto (2017). Dr. Daftari has published widely, and her most recent book is Persia Reframed: Iranian Visions of Modern and Contemporary Art (London: I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2019).

About Dr. Robert Storr

Robert Storr is an internationally acclaimed art critic, curator, painter, and educator whose writing and scholarship have shaped contemporary art discourse for decades. A former curator and Senior Curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1990–2002), he organized landmark exhibitions and monographs on artists including Gerhard Richter, Robert Ryman, Elizabeth Murray, and Willem de Kooning. In 2007, he served as Director of the Venice Biennale, presenting the influential exhibition Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind, which featured the work of Y.Z. Kami. Storr has taught widely across the Americas and Europe, holding posts at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts and later serving as Dean of the Yale School of Art until 2017. His publications include two major volumes of collected writings on art, as well as monographs on Louise Bourgeois and Philip Guston. Among his many honors are awards from the French Ministry of Culture and the American Academy in Rome. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.