Bahram Berj Kafai is an Iranian-American painter, retired Aerospace Engineer and inventor of several U.S. Patents in Nano-Technology, based in California for the past forty years. He is noted for expressionist paintings of the Golden State's rich landscapes and astronomy subjects.
Philosophy
My paintings interpret nature, its cyclical images of growth and renewal. I paint nature not as I see it, but as it ought to be. I want to be up close to the image, to have the sun low enough in the sky so that light reflects off surfaces in dynamic ways. I want trees to be the key compositional elements of each piece. Finished paintings are a synthesis of my imagination and my observations of nature.
My landscape pieces are either busy with tree branches, capturing the complexity and meticulous detail of nature, or simple and rough, conveying a sense of calm. The latter of these techniques happens and develops intuitively. The colors of the paint, the amount of light is not necessary. My internal reaction to the scenery is what I focus on; everything else is forgotten.
The more worked on paintings, the ones with webbed shadows and detailed reflections, are more dynamic: the calm of color and frantic lines show the peeking and falling of moods. Nature as a subject is never still. It always provides variations, new ways of seeing. This is what inspires me to paint; I want to capture nature as it constantly mends itself.
When I paint in the open air, I am living in my canvas, in my subject matter. I eat, sleep, and exist in what I will later capture in paint. I witness nature in all four of her seasons and may travel several times to the same location, paying heed to light, the movement of branches. I may visit the same site in rain, in the fall, or at the peek of summer to see how temperature and the seasons affect the same landscape and the way it is to be interpreted.
“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
-Albert Einstein
Old Town Newhall Library, Main Street, Santa Clarita, CA, USA
The Beauty of Stillness Juried Exhibition
Opening: January 16, 2024 Exhibition reception 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Exhibition timeframe: Jan 16 to April 24, 2024
Bahram B. Kafai- Painting title: A new day, Media: Oil on canvas, Size 24X36 inch
The City of Santa Clarita is inviting artists to submit artwork for consideration for our upcoming “Beauty of Stillness” juried exhibition which will be on view at the Santa Clarita Old Town Newhall Library Branch. We are seeking original artwork in any medium that explores the depths of tranquility, calm and the silent power that resides in stillness. We are searching for work that encapsulates moments of pause, reflection and serenity that offers viewers a journey into the spaces between motions.
The First Floor Gallery
Transcendence: Breaking Boundaries
Juried Exhibition: Jan 19 to March 7, 2024
Opening: January 19, 2024 Exhibition reception 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Bahram B. Kafai- Painting title: Tychobrahe Exoplanet, Media: Oil on canvas, Size 24X18 inch
Santa Clarita Artist’s Association, 6th Street, Santa Clarita, CA, USA
2023 ‘Colors of the Rainbow’
The SCAA gallery is located at 22508 Sixth Street in Newhal. Twenty four artists will be exhibiting in this show: Olga Kaczmar, Cheri Marcovitch, Howard Marcovitch, Meryl Goudey, Rene Smoller, Freda Morrison, Laurie Morgan, Dody Rogers, John Moffit, Jeanne Iler, Bahram Kafai, Mardi Georgio, Diane Aquinaldo, Charlotte Mullich, Sandy Fisher, Lynda Frautnik, Jane Mick, Pat Thayer, Gloria Cassidy, Sandy O’ Connor, Qiana Tarlow, Laura Ledesma, Tobi Beck, and Estelle Priot.
This show celebrating the beauty and joy that color brings into our lives. Visitors are invited to attend our opening reception, which will include appetizers and a chance to meet the artists and discuss artist's pieces.
Santa Clarita Artist’s Association, 6th Street, Santa Clarita, CA, USA
2023 “Wishful Thinking”
The SCAA gallery is located at 22508 Sixth Street in Newhal. A group show will be exhibiting in this show. Opening reception Saturday Jan. 7 exhibit from Jan. 7 to Jan. 28
Visitors are invited to attend our opening reception, which will include appetizers and a chance to meet the artists and discuss artist's pieces.
Hyatt Regency Valencia, Town Center Drive, Valencia, California, USA
A Starry Night art show for one night only to celebrate Doctors and nurses working for Henry Mayo hospital.
Valencia Public Library, 23743 West Valencia Blvd, Santa Clarita, CA 91355, USA
2022-2023 Valencia Library23743 West Valencia Blvd. Santa Clarita, CA 91355
The City of Santa Clarita welcomes the newest art exhibit located above the Children’s Area in the Valencia Library Branch. The art exhibit will be on display for an entire year from March 2022 through March 2023.
Five artists were selected to create original artwork inspired by woods and nature on a five-foot by five-foot canvas. The selected artists are Bahram Kafai, Diana Klauss, Megan Andersen, Mosa Tanksley, and Sharon Lee. Each works displays the unique and creative artistic interpretation of woodland nature.
City of Santa Clarita: Newhall Community Center, 22421 Market Street, Newhall, CA 91321, USA
2021-2022 November 1, 2021 through January 7, 2022
This collection of artwork exhibits that artistic depictions of the following cultural holidays celebrations and traditions: Las Posadas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas (Santa), Lunar New Year, Dia de Los Muertos, and Ramadan. Each artist uniquely displays the different ways culture celebrate holidays that fall between November 1 and January 7. Walk through the exhibit to learn more about these traditions. This exhibit is in conjunction with Newhall Community Center’s holiday programming.
Exhibiting artists: Azul Rivera, Bahram Kafai, Carlos Batchelor, Fernando Martinez, Georgette Arison, Jiayuan Li, Kayla Johnson, Laura Hunt, Margaret Raab, Marisol De Las Casas, Tony Hanna.
Old Town Newhall Library, Main Street, Santa Clarita, CA, USA
2021 SCCA Santa Clarita Artist Association
Juried exhibit
Old Town Newhall library
Mid-Valley Regional Library, Nordhoff Street, North Hills, CA, USA
2010 National Wilderness
Exhibit at Mid-Valley, opening on Monday 2 August 2010. Six plein air oil paintings from National Wilderness.
4145 East Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley, CA, USA
2010 California National Parks
Cafe Valentino's 4145 East LA Ave.
Solo show, collection of over 15 new landscape paintings from 2009-2010 on California National Parks
Porter Ranch Branch Library, 11371 Tampa Avenue, Porter Ranch, CA, USA
Berj Kafai has several Landscape paintings displayed at the Porter Ranch Library in Northridge, CA.
Cafe Valentino's East Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley, CA, USA
Solo show, 14 Landscape oil paintings from 2009 California wilderness.
Mid-Valley Regional Library, 16244 Nordhoff Street, North Hills, CA, USA
Monday 1 June 2009-Wednesday 1 July 2009
Solo show, oil paintings from 2006-2008 plein air collection
Abbey Lane, Porter Ranch, CA, USA
Kafai's exhibit at Abbey Lane Cafe is now open
Press- 2023, The Signal NewsSCV artists express ‘Wishful Thinking’ in new gallery
Santa Clarita Artists Association in Newhall, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023.Trevor Morgan/The Signal
As Bahram Berj Kafai leaned on his cane with his right hand, he used his left to explain the meaning behind his paintings — the two largest displayed at the Santa Clarita Artists Association’s “Wishful Thinking” exhibit on Saturday — through his thick Iranian accent.
“This is one of the villages in Iran,” said Kafai during the artists’ reception on Saturday. Kafai was describing his impressionist-style oil on canvas painting titled “Woman in the Window,” which showed a young woman sitting in a windowsill, wearing a hijab and knitting from a ball of yarn hanging from the top of the sill. He painted it in 2004, but feels it’s especially relevant today — as Iran is currently engulfed in protests following the killing of a 22-year-old woman in September after she was detained for not complying with the country’s strict morality laws.
Kafai and his peers all contributed to an exhibit titled “Wishful Thinking,” which was expressed in a variety of ways. Some were timely or topical, such as Kafai’s works, while others were more literal, such as Laurie Morgan’s piece of a snowy day in Santa Clarita.
However, there was one in particular that didn’t individually fit the theme, but organizers realized it could be used to express it in concert with another.
“I have the woman there, ‘If the Shoe Fits,’” said Mardi Georgio, referencing her painting and its title. “So she was actually a friend of mine who was trying on my shoes for an event she was going to and she just was so beautiful, with the dress and with her hair up and I was like, ‘Don’t move, I have to take a photo.’ Because she just looked so gorgeous and sometimes something like that just inspires me.”
The painting, of an elegant woman in a beautiful dress, with her hair and shoulders exposed, was just below, and being looked upon, by Kafai’s woman in the window — a wishful thought separated by borders and a wall. The placement, as is with all the paintings in the gallery, is intentional.
“It’s the juxtaposition of cultures,” said Gallery Chair Lynda Frautnick. “Both women are looking down, they’re facing down, their eyes are down and they could be thinking the exact same thought. But the beauty of the two different cultures just side-by-side — that’s what blew me away.”
2022-2023 SCV news.com-A service of SCVTV Local television for Santa Clarita
WALK INTO THE WOODS
Step Into Nature at the New Valencia Library Art Exhibit.
Walk into the woods at the city of Santa Clarita’s new art exhibit located above the Children’s Area at the Valencia Branch of the Santa Clarita Public Library. This art exhibit will be on display for an entire year, from March 2022 through March 2023.
Five artists were selected to create original artwork inspired by woods and nature on a five-foot by five-foot canvas. The selected artists are Bahram Kafai, Diana Klauss, Megan Andersen, Mosa Tanksley and Sharon Lee. Each work displays the unique and creative artistic interpretation of woodland nature, ranging from a “Mushroom Forest” by Kafai to “Forest Friends” by Lee, or even recognizing a few friendly faces from Anderson’s piece, “When You Were Little.” The exhibit hopes to bring color, art and imagination to the children and community.
2021 Arts in Santa Clarita Valley
Newhall Community Centers
New Exhibit! "Around the World Holiday Traditions" is now up for viewing at Newhall Community Center or virtually (link in bio). Holidays and traditions artistically depicted are the following: Las Posadas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas (Santa), Lunar New Year, Día de los Muertos, and Ramadan. This exhibit is in conjunction with Newhall Community Center's holiday programming. On exhibit from November 1 - January 7 during NCC's business hours."Celebration Dance" by Bahram Kafai
1976 Fresno Bee
Couverture Presse de David Hale, Journaliste à Bee Arts, 1976 Oxygen
« Le centre d’Art Fresno a dévoilé sa première compétition d’artistes.
Il s’agit d’une exposition nous montrant beaucoup de choses intéressantes, un travail parfois déjà connu émanant d’artistes reconnus, et pourtant, un nombre impressionnant de choses d’Artistes moins connus.
Des travaux assez conservateurs, quelques rares pièces traitant des préocupations du moment comme de nouveaux concepts et de nouveaux matéria
ux. Beaucoup de ces Artistes sont créatifs et certains travaux sont très individuels. Le
rendu dans l’ensemble dégage une impression assez élégante.
Et évidemment sur 148 pièces pour presque autant d’Artistes , on pouvait s’attendre à une multitude de choses à voir. Heureusement, il y a suffisamment de matière et de beauté pour remplir une exposition, et de temps pour y retourner !
Il y a encore du temps, la fin de l’expo est le 23 juillet et nous ne sommes que le 4.
Le jury, composé de Frank Laury, Professeur d’Art à FSU, Robert Marcellus Professeur d’Art au Collège Sequoia qui est aussi le coordinateur de la Foire d’Art de l’Etat de Californie et Randrew Maas, directeur exécutif du Centre d’Art. Il leur a fallu choisir parmi 250 oeuvres pour aboutir à cette sélection.
Ce qui a été retenu est constitué en majorité de peintures, et malheureusement quelques rares pièces imprimés et sculptures.
Très vite l’œuvre la plus spectaculaire apparaît, il s’agit d’ une peinture à l’huile d’un artiste Iranien Bahram Kafai, simplement décrite comme « une vue de la terre d’un astronaute ».
Il y a du drame, de l’imaginaire, du réalisme romantique d’une intensité géniale dans ce voyage dans l’espace !
il montre des vues rapprochées des planètes, des d’étoiles et de mystérieuses et tourbillonnantes perturbations représentant des explosions dans l’espace.
La peinture est sur grand format (2,4m x 2,4m) au cadre concave, avec des constructions ajoutant encore de l’intensité et des illusions d’espace. Tout comme le réalisme que donne le rapprochement, on sent le vertige , le sens de la hauteur, comme si un nez était appuyé sur la fenêtre d’une capsule spatiale.
On nous a dit que ce n’est pas l’avis de l’artiste, mais c’est l’effet que cela produit. On nous a aussi annoncé que les visiteurs au vernissage aimaient « Oxygène » ou le détestait !
Kafai était parmis une demi-douzaine d’inconnus dont le travail exposé était impressionnant, les autre à un moindre niveau.
Roberto C.Salas montre une sculpture aux pièces multiples de talent de maturité où se se mélent déclaration sociale sur le monde matériel, les femmes et la beauté (interprétation précise ne m’appartenant pas).Elizabeth Geller’s “”Tremblements flambants” était une attirante aquarelle représentant un paysage aux traitements multiples.
John Y.Fortes a présenté une abstraction saisissante qui rappelle Richard Diebenkorn dans sa manière de traiter l’espace, dans sa structure et sa texture.
Dan Forbes a lui contribué grâce à une photo couleur d’un nu d’une beautée et d’un mystère extrêmement fort, et Vicki Brumberg’s “Rootabagga” avec une sculpture en forme de panier agréablement terreux, primitive et inventive. Joy Johnson a lui appliqué une approche conceptuelle avec une sculpture et produit une pièce que l’on pourrait qualifier d’avant-gardiste avec une structure conservative.
Carole Anderson a démontré un talent prometteur en réalisant quelque chose de visuellement intéressant avec l’économie de…
1976, Fresno Bee
By David Hale
Bees Arts Writer
"The Fresno Arts Center has mounted its first competition for member artists, resulting in an exhibition which balances off mostly good if sometimes familiar works by recognized artists with a number of impressive things by lesser-knowns.
It's pretty conservative stuff, really: only a handful at most deal with such concerns of the moment as concept-new materials-information art. But there are a number of inventive, individualistic works and taken altogether, the effect is pretty classy.
As might be expected in a show which offers 148 pieces by nearly as many artists, there is a bewildering variety of things to see.
Fortunately, there is enough substance and beauty--not exactly commonplace in these group grab-bags--to make a return visit worthwhile. There is still time; the season's finale, "Memberworks" will be on view through July 23 (though not today or July 4). The judges were Frank Laury, a professor of art at FSU; Robert Marcellus, an art instructor for College of Sequoias who is also coordinator of the California State Fair art show, and R. Andrew Maass, executive director of the Arts Center. They combed through about 250 works to choose the exhibition.
What’s remains is long on paintings, notably short on prints and sculptures.
Easily the most spectacular piece in the show is an oil painting by Iran-born Bahram Kafai most simply described as an astronaut’s view of Earth.
There is drama, fantasy and romantic realism of great intensity in the “space trip. It shows close-up views of planets, acres of “stars” and mysterious swirling disturbances presumably representing explosions in distant space.
The picture is set in a large (about eight feet by eight feet) concave frame, with the construction adding to the illusion of space. Such is the realism that up close it’s possible to experience a dizzying sense of height, as it one’s nose were pressed to the window of a space capsule.
We’re told that’s not the artist’s point, but that is the effect. We’re also told that viewers at the opening reception either loved “Oxygene” (taken from the pop album of the same name, presumably) or hated it.
Kafai was among perhaps a half dozen of “unknowns” whose work was impressive to this viewer, the others to a more moderate degree.
Roberto C. Salas shows a multi-piece sculpture conveying the impression of a mature talent grappling with a social statement in “Materials, Women and Beauty” (precise interpretation is beyond me).
Elizabeth Geller’s “Flaming Aspens” was notable as a watercolor landscape with a different treatment; John Y. Fortes is represented by a striking abstraction which suggests a Richard Diebenkorn landscape in its handling of space and structure and texture.
Dan Forbes contributed a color photograph of a nude that is strong in rhythmic beauty and mystery, and Vicki Brumberg’s “Rootabagga” is a contemporary basket sculpture that is pleasingly earthy, primitive and inventive.
Joy Johnson took a conceptual approach to sculpture and produced a piece which could qualify as vanguard in concept though conservative in structure. Carol Anderson demonstrates a promising talent, making something of visual interest with economy of…(See Arts Center Page G6)”
