User talk:Darshab

Mr. Darab Shabahang Biography,

Darab Shabahang began his artistic endeavors after the Islamic revolution. In grade school, he had always been very comfortable and enjoyed the arts and music very much. He went to India and received his degree in Physics instead and then attempted to receive his masters in London for the same field. However, the onset of the revolution prevented this as he became actively involved in politics in India. He traveled to Europe and became a member of the World Confederation of Iranian Students. When returned to Iran, he was very disappointed by the outcome of the revolution and since he did not have permission for a formal job, he turned to art. Studying at Kamal al-Molk, the famous arts institution in Iran, He studied under Hossein Sheykh, who had been one of the original students of Kamal al-Molk. Other teachers included Bangeez, Marzaie, Broumand, Amamehpich, Aghdashloo and Ruyin Pakbaz. He once again became familiarized with drawing and painting. In 1983, he established Shabahang Art Atelier, a studio near the University of Tehran. It later became a center for artists and musicians to gather and collaborate. The Saeed Broumand Group and the Jacob Amameh Peech Group and, for sometime Ruyin Pakbaz, in visual artists, Hameed Motebassem, Hemmati, and Hammidi in music, and Ali Dehbashee and Asghar Abdolahi in literature were all involved in the studio at some point. He tried to learn and participate in all of the fields and take advantage of the knowledge of these friends. In 1985, he published Memories of Kamal al-Molk, and the Artists’ Calendar with the help of Dehbashee. Later on, he translated The Language of Painting and The Art of Framing and also published these books, as well as other books that were never published. At the studio, He played and taught Setar, but most importantly he tried to learn as much as he could from respected artists such as Ruyin Pakbaz who taught classes later at his studio called Tandis. During this time of three or four years, he learned much about the history of art, the fundamentals of visual arts, and the experiences of different styles. He held several individual and group exhibitions in Tehran, the last exhibition was the second bi-annual exhibition organized by the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts. After eighteen years of living in Iran after the revolution, eight years of which he was not permitted to leave Iran, he turned to consider immigration with his family, in the hopes of allowing his two daughters to live in a country with more opportunities for them. . After immigrating to Canada, Mr. Shabahang further continued his contribution to the arts community on an international level. He was involved in the local arts communities in North Vancouver for almost 4 years and served as a director and juror for NVCAC, North Vancouver Community Arts Council and the Chare of the visual Arts committee of the West Vancouver Library. Later he established the Artpars Original Fine Arts and WACA, the Web Association of Canadian Artists. He studied at BCIT, British Colombia Institute of Technology and Capilano College in the fields of animation, graphic design, and web design. These studies helped him better monitor Artpars and WACA through the web. With cooperation of artists and colleagues in Canada, the US, Iran, and Europe, he was able to take WACA and Artpars to an international level. In 2000, he established a gallery to house the Artpars and WACA community called Artpars gallery in Park Royal South Mall in West Vancouver. Artpars and WACA through the cooperation of the two organizations, continued to make art a solid and stable facet of the society.

He was the first in Vancouver, Canada to host such large and influential multi-cultural exhibitions. He organized an event with 45 selected members of the Society of Iranian Painters, sponsored by Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts, in 2004. His important contributions continued, again not just his fine art and painting contributions, but his organizing and hosting opportunities for Iranian artists to be exhibited internationally. In 2002, to appreciate great artists such as Mr. Hooshang Seyhoon the famous artist and architect of Iran before the Islamic revolution who is now living in west Vancouver, at the opening of Artpars gallery in Capilano Mall in north Vancouver, he invited the famous Canadian portrait artist Elizabeth Smiley, who was once the portrait artist for the Queen Elizabeth, now to paint the portrait of Hooshang Seyhoon live in front of the public. Mr. Shabahang also joined and painted a live portrait from Mr. Seyhoon. The ceremony was published in the local newspapers.

Mr. Shabahang has extended his research in classical Persian painting "Negargary", to Persian classical music and is planning to perform and exhibit both music and visual arts in a contemporary presentation in Washington DC. His synergistic combination of Persian visual art and classical music certainly constitutes a highly original and significant contribution to fine arts.