Kour Pour: Familiar Spirits

For his inaugural solo exhibition, Familiar Spirits, at Kavi Gupta, Kour Pour has made a body of work instilled with the idea of family—not only that into which we are born, but the families we construct as our personal histories unfold.

Pour’s debut at the gallery will present a group of paintings he created around the motif of the tiger. As with past bodies of work, such as his acclaimed carpet paintings, this series contains elements that reference both global art history and various interconnected cultural iconographies. Pour uses the word foster to describe his process of activating such visual associations, suggesting that he is nurturing something temporarily in his care. Pour was born and raised in Devon, South West England. His father, Iranian by birth, immigrated to England at age 14 during the 1979 revolution. Pour’s mother was raised in the British foster care system.

“I romanticize that both of them were without family and home and created that together,” says Pour. “I’m doing that in my studio. The works start in a personal space. I’m creating a home for myself or others like myself.”

Familiar yet startlingly fresh, the work hints at a shared world of similar stories and different backgrounds, where personal histories are fostered by the families we create.

Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Returnee at The Club, Tokyo, 2019; Manzareh/Keshiki/Landscape at Ever Gold [Projects], San Francisco, 2019; and Polypainting at Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong, 2018, and GNYP Gallery, Berlin, 2018. Select group exhibitions include Gold Standard: Ten Year Anniversary Exhibition at Ever Gold [Projects], 2019; Decoration Never Dies, Anyway at Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Museum, Tokyo, 2017; and Labyrinth(s) at Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong, 2016. A solo exhibition at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran is forthcoming in 2022.

Image: Kour Pour, White Tiger of the West, 2020, block printing ink, acrylic, and oil on canvas, 43 x 38 inches. Untitled, 2021, block printing ink, acrylic, and oil on canvas, 94 x 73 inches.