The Brooklyn Rail

There is much to be said—and much being said—about the conditions and the state of nature at this moment in history, where multiple species face extinction, lush sceneries turn into wastelands, and ice melts with unforeseen consequences. This tale of catastrophe seems to hold no opportunity for meditation. However, artists and brothers Saman and Sasan Oskouei (aka Icy & Sot) offer a provocatively quiet response to this situation in their new exhibition, Flora Urbanica, which presents a delicate exploration of urban flora.

Despite the title’s spin on the Enlightenment era craze for collection, classification, and identification of natural phenomena, Saman and Sasan Oskouei adopt a somewhat different strategy than the careful and detached documentation of the world at play in the scientific systems of taxonomy that still hold sway. At the gallery entrance mimosas creep out of the cracks of a concrete pillar. In works such as Ice Flower (2024) and Blooming mountains (2024) the intricate anatomies of plants and seeds evolve into abstract shapes that are transposed onto canvas and sculptural form, as if they are extensions of nature with a will of their own. In Softly unfolding (2024) and Earth whisper (2024) seeds breaking through soil or the slow unfurling of a leaf in spring morph into compositions that seem to shift gradually and kaleidoscopically before our eyes. Fluid lines and earthy textures, occasionally trapped in architectural structures—most obviously in The quiet pulse of a seed (2024) where the soft shape of a piece of cherry wood is caught in a steel maze—contribute to a sense of being suspended in time, subjected to the same rhythms as these vaguely recognizable species.

The Oskouei brothers’ playful pollinations of canvas, steel, and cherry wood have precursors in the history of art, but the garden they cultivate here is nourished by curiosity, a subtle simplicity bordering on innocence. The calm presence of these enigmatic objects ask us kindly to leave them alone, to let the quiet unfolding of something new happen without our interference.

A small, embroidered work, hanging on the rear wall of the gallery’s ground floor, stands out with remarkably vivid colors among the muted hues surrounding it. It is based on the large painting Touch of Blossom (2024), hanging next to it, and produced by the artists’ mother, Sima Bahramghanad. This materialization of long hours spent with needle and thread in the artists’ childhood home discreetly lets biography mingle with the cultural and social issues in the brothers’ work. Embroidery has historically drawn its ornamental imagery from nature and its tactile properties are closely associated with the female body. Typically confined to the intimacy and privacy of the feminine sphere, it has held a subversive power as a promoter of secret histories, far removed from the ecosystems of public discourse. Here, embroidery tells an intimate tale of familial bonds nurtured across continents. It emerges as an act of resistance against political conditions, which is deeply ingrained in the DNA of the Oskouei brothers’ artistic practice.

The hybridity of lightness and gravity at play in Flora Urbanica is reminiscent of the often-tongue-in-cheek visual poetry of the artists’ previous work. However, this exhibition marks a radical shift in their practice from more explicit political statements on issues such as the environment and the refugee crisis towards a more contemplative mode. In the artistic vision Saman and Sasan Oskouei present us with here, we are enfolded in the ongoing processes of a nature woven into the fabric of the cities we inhabit.