Creme Caramel, 2023, Roya Bahram, brown alabaster, pigment, 15 x 13.5 x 7 cm
Blue Shop Gallery presents
'Gāmboo!'
Roya Bahram | Gallery 2
11th - 28th July 2024
PV Drinks Wednesday 10th July 6-9pm
72 Brixton Road, Oval SW9 6BH
Gallery opening hours: Wed - Sun | 11am - 6pm
Roya Bahram (b1998) is a British-Iranian sculptor based in London. She is a classically trained stone carver, with a BA from City and Guilds of London Art School in Historic and Architectural Stone Carving, and a foundation degree in Fine Art from Working Men's College. She was recently featured in the A/W23 issue of The Bible of British Taste magazine.
Working primarily in marble and semiprecious stones, Bahram creates playful trompe l’œil sculptures with a focus on enhancing the textures and colours that naturally occur within the stone, whilst simultaneously challenging the rigid nature of the material, turning blocks of solid stone into gloopy, squishy, and gelatinous still-life sculptures inspired by pop art and the mundane.
Gāmboo!
Gāmboo! - a persian word meaning greedy, gluttonous, food obsessed.
Step into a wonderland carved from stone as rising star Roya Bahram presents her debut solo exhibition, ‘Gāmboo!’ at Blue Shop Gallery. Ocki Magill, gallery director, discovered Roya’s exceptional talent at the local City & Guilds stone carving course a few minutes walk from the gallery in Oval, South London in 2022.
This collection of sculptures breathes new life into the tradition of stone carving by transforming cold, hard marble into exciting depictions of decadent foods and sweet treats. Roya’s British-Iranian heritage adds a captivating layer to her work. Whilst Iranian art boasts a rich history in marble sculpture, her upbringing in Britain allows her to playfully subvert tradition. This is evident in her vibrant palette of coloured marbles and alabasters, a move beyond the usual white surface in stone carving we so readily associate with the material.
Stone carving, a historically male-dominated practice, finds a powerful new voice in Roya. Witnessing the sheer virtuosity with which she transforms stone into delightful sculptures underlines the timeless allure of food in art. These meticulously carved treats transcend mere indulgence - they become symbols of abundance and social connection across cultures. You may also discover the familiar picnic visitor, a glamorous disco slug or two climbing the walls of the exhibition. When sourcing marble to sculpt these works creating meat, cheese, cake, shrimps and a salmon fillet, Roya spends a lot of time searching for rare marbles that pay excellent tribute to the colours and textures of her subject matter. During her quest for marble, sometimes she comes across irresistibly rare pieces of marble that then inspire her next work.
The conversation around women and food is normally linked to diet culture and restriction, Roya Bahrams’ exhibition throws a playful marbled wrench into the discourse. Her sculptures - a glistening steak, a melting brie, a decadent cake slice, and fizzy cola bottles - are a celebration of indulgence, a bold rejection of the societal pressures associated with such foods. Roya’s meticulously carved marble sculptures challenge the way we view food. By transforming everyday indulgences into works of art, she invites us to reconsider our relationship with food. It’s not just about restriction and guilt, but also about appreciation, pleasure, and even a touch of whimsy. Her work speaks to anyone who has ever felt the urge to savour a decadent treat, offering a celebration of taste and flavour, free from judgment. Roya places our favourite indulgences on a stage, to be praised, for both their glossy beckoning surfaces but also for what they represent to us culturally, bringing loved ones together around a table or, indeed, a picnic blanket.
hello@blueshopcottage.com for all sales enquiries
“I find the physical effort it takes to carve marble and the history associated with what it is traditionally used for as a material creates a quiet underlying pressure on the importance of the ‘thing’ that one chooses to depict in stone - is the ‘thing’ worthy of the material? I enjoy playing with this tension of it’s historic status and prominence versus its subject status. Giving a slice of cheese or a humble fried egg the same treatment that ancient civilisations would give their deities, spending days on end carefully carving to create something which has the potential to outlast us all.”
Fizzy cola bottles carved in brown alabaster by Roya Bahram, 2023
Creme caramel carved in brown alabaster, Roya Bahram, 2023