SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- San Francisco artist Hadi Tabatabai opens a solo exhibition entitled Portals at Brian Gross Fine Art on Thursday, November 3rd, with a reception for the artist from 5:30-7:30pm. The works included represent a continuation of Tabatabai's exploration of the line as a physical space. The artist's trademark thread paintings, a combination of drawing, painting, and sculpture, investigate perception of space and invite self-reflection. The exhibition is on view through December 23, 2011.

Hadi Tabatabai's "paintings" function as portals into the physical space of the work as well as gateways for self-contemplation. Space for Tabatabai, is defined as "empty space. It's not this or that." At first glance, the work appears two dimensional, however upon closer inspection, the sculptural quality of the work is revealed through the play of positive and negative space. Art historian Peter Lodermeyer remarks, "With a seeing eye and vigilant mind you can dream yourself right into the works by Hadi Tabatabai, which need not refer to anything other than their precise, patient state of having been created, in order to activate the poetics of the interior." Tabatabai creates work that is empty of human drama, producing a meditative experience.

Hadi Tabatabai was born in Mashhad, Iran, in 1964 and immigrated to the United States in 1977. He received a B.S. in Industrial Technology from Fresno State University (1985) and a B.F.A. in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute (1995). His work has been shown widely in Bonn, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Turin, and can be found in the collections of The Achenbach Foundation at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaii, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, The Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Progressive Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio, and Werner Kramarsky, New York City, among others. Tabatabai received a Pollock-Krasner Grant (2008) and has been an artist in residence at the Kala Art Institute, Berkeley (2007), affiliate artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito (2006-2007), and artist in residence in 2010. This is Hadi Tabatabai's second exhibition at Brian Gross Fine Art.