Three prints with a black matboard with matte black moulding.
Jinous Kani was born in Persia in 1979. Raised in a well educated family in the northern part of Tehran, Kani was encouraged to seek knowledge wherever she could. Her parents, who intrinsically valued and included art in their daily activities, seamlessly incorporated the artistic fundamentals into Kani’s upbringing. But it was not until her first year of middle school that Kani harnessed the creative authority garnered from her advanced intellectual background. It was during these formative years that Kani tried her hand at sketching, a craft she immediately took to, and excelled at almost as quickly. Motivated by a close-knit group of like-minded friends, Kani and her cohorts made frequent trips to area galleries and different unique locations specifically to sketch. Impressed by their daughter’s self-discipline, Kani’s parents recognized in her the potential for much greater things. They encouraged Kani to continue her education at a high school with an art-based curriculum. Through her teens, Kani continued sketching and improving her skill through Visual Arts classes. During this period, she specifically developed an interest in visual abstraction, and the imaginative vignettes and figures conjured out of this unconventional method of drawing. Eager to think beyond her preferred medium, Kani found extra time to sculpt pottery and other three-dimensional arts, pursuits that ultimately complemented and enhanced her abstract visions. Always ready to raise the bar, Kani soon branched out into painting, after a visit to the U.S. Kani credits exposure to a different culture with her sudden interest in new ways of thinking and fresher means of artistic expression. Following this visit, Kani considered leaving Tehran for the first time. In the interim, she studied Graphic Design at Azad University in Tehran. Once she completed school, she was hired by one of Iran’s leading design agencies. Kani eventually relocated to the states, where painting became her career focus. Influenced primarily by figurative greats Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, Kani was able to brilliantly capture the tension between negative and positive space on canvas, a trait evident in much of her work. This intense, inimitable approach has helped Kani harvest a strong following for someone of her youth. Stylized bodies of exaggerated proportions intertwine with powerful color and line to convey a serenity of spirit. The expressive palette and painterly gestures match that mood and intensify the humanistic motif dominant in most of Kani’s catalogue. Kani sees no direct distinction between graphic design, painting or art in any form, which has only served to benefit her and increase her already widespread appeal throughout the art industry.