The Forum 20 | Kamrooz Aram: Painting on the Edge of Ornament and Abstraction

He works through form, perception, and the politics of display — Kamrooz Aram on ornament, abstraction, and the unstable ground of how we see.Kamrooz Aram moves between painting, sculpture, and collage, using material, structure, and exhibition design to question how images are read and how histories are constructed. His work often begins in the studio, through process and formal decision-making, and expands outward into larger systems of meaning: how value is assigned, how objects are categorized, and how cultural narratives are embedded within visual form. Across recent exhibitions, he continues to return to questions of ornament, modernism, and the conditions that shape perception without resolving them into fixed positions.He explains:* How openness, curiosity, and “young artist energy” remain essential to sustaining a long-term practice.* Why restraint, stepping away, and not overworking are as critical as mark-making in the studio.* What it means to work within a structure or “mode,” where improvisation can emerge without forcing novelty.* How ornament and abstraction are historically entangled, and why their separation reflects biased art histories.* Why viewers project cultural assumptions onto form, and how ideas of “the decorative” or “the exotic” are constructed.* How value shifts depending on context, authorship, and belief, from museum objects to replicas and everyday materials.* Why art can create moments of transcendence through form, rather than through narrative alone.(00:08) Welcome + Returning to the Studio(04:20) Reclaiming “Young Artist Energy”(10:00) The Nonlinear Life of a Painting(15:30) Disruption, Destruction, and Letting the Work Shift(25:56) Sculpture as an Extension of Painting(28:10) Ornament, Abstraction, and Historical Bias(33:40) Time, Fading, and Letting Go of Control(52:45) Authenticity, Replication, and Constructed ValueWatch the conversationView the full episode on YouTube.Follow KamroozWeb: https://kamroozaram.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kamroozegar/Kamrooz Aram (b. 1978) has built his practice on dismantling the divide between ornament and fine art, renegotiating the art historical hierarchies that privilege Western forms of abstraction above others. His paintings and sculptures do not simply cross categories; they probe the structures that enforce them. Born in Shiraz, Iran, Aram emigrated to the United States in the 1980s, where he found himself forced to come to terms with a multitude of identities imposed upon him. These experiences left a lasting mark. Categories, he discovered, do not merely describe identity—they invent it. This recognition drives his work, which asserts that non-Western ornamental traditions carry the same intellectual weight and conceptual rigor Western art history has long reserved for itself.About The ForumThe Forum is NewCrits’ ongoing public talk series, presented in partnership with WSA/WSBS. Talks take place live every second Tuesday at WSA. Join us for our next conversation here.Explore NewCrits’ offerings, including crits, courses, and mentorship programs at www.newcrits.studio.—Full Transcript Get full access to NewCrits Substack at newcrits.substack.com/subscribe