Ali Banisadr: The Alchemist, the artist’s first major US museum survey, at Katonah Museum of Art

On view 16 March–29 June 2025, the exhibition encompasses nearly twenty years of the artist’s singular practice, from 2006 to the present, across the mediums of painting, drawing, and printmaking. Sculpture, a new direction for the artist, will be presented for the first time.

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The following events with the artist will take place:

16 March (Opening Day): Join Ali Banisadr and KMA Director and Chief Curator Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe for an insightful conversation surveying the ways that Banisadr’s broad knowledge of music, history, science, and psychology—as well as art—has shaped his painting and sculpture. 

5 April: Banisadr and Sarah Graff, Curator, Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, explore the impact of Ancient Mesopotamian art on his own work. Their discussion will examine the influences from such works as the Queen of the Night relief (British Museum), votive figures from Tell Asmar, Iraq, and texts like the Epic of Gilgamesh. 

10 May: Banisadr and NYU Professor Alexander Nagel unpack the concept of cyclical time—where past motifs, spaces, and rituals continually reappear—and its influence on Banisadr’s contemporary practice.  

Image: Ali Banisadr, These fragments I have shored against my ruins, 2023