Writing services and criticism for publication are at the heart of what we provide at the BHC. RBH regularly writes articles, reviews of new shows & biennales, monographs, books and artists' biographies. A few select examples are highlighted below.
Critique of the work of Farnaz Faridfar - December 2025 (section)
........My travels regularly take me to the middle east, specifically to Dubai where Faridfar currently resides, so I am very familiar with the region and its artistic scene. I have also represented other artists of Iranian descent at various London exhibitions. Iran/Persia has one of the richest artistic traditions in the world, and there is a feeling that a major defining quality of the country is the arts, and, despite her residency in Dubai, Faridfar’s practice has a clear artistic lineage with her homeland, where her distinctive qualities as an artist have been moulded. She has so much to contribute to the UK arts scene, and she will no doubt be a forceful presence in the UK’s social sphere too, where she will endeavour to lead the debate surrounding the role of women in the arts. Her oeuvre is imbued with a style and form from her reimagining’s of the Iranian cultural experience, specifically with reference to women and the Iranian diaspora.
Like many in this diaspora Faridfar is determined to maintain her cultural identity while abroad. She believes women will shape the world of the future, and her mission is to be at the forefront of this debate. Drawing on the richness of Iranian artistic tradition, Farnaz Faridfar’s practice carries a clear lineage with her cultural heritage, which has shaped her distinctive qualities as an artist. This influence is woven directly into the fabric of her work, where spiritual depth, symbolism, and visual rhythm play a central role. Her paintings reflect a sensibility informed by Iranian culture and philosophy, particularly through her engagement with Sufi tradition and the inspirational teachings of Rumi. Farnaz encourages viewers to embark on a journey of self-discovery and reflection through her work, where each brushstroke and intricate detail reflects a profound reverence for the divine and the interplay of light and darkness. Farnaz Faridfar would bring significant value to the UK arts scene through her engagement with themes of women’s presence, identity, and creative contribution, articulated through her artistic practice. Her work offers UK audiences and practitioners insight into perspectives shaped by the Iranian diaspora, expressed through a contemporary and reflective visual language. Alongside her studio practice, Faridfar regularly contributes to public discourse through panels and discussion groups, most recently at the MIA Collection in Dubai as part of the panel ‘Route of the Invisibles’, engaging with other important figures on the role of women in the arts. In the UK context, this positions her as a meaningful contributor to cultural exchange and dialogue, particularly in relation to women’s creative voices within an international arts landscape.
Farnaz Faridfar’s exceptional talent has already been recognised by many galleries and organisations around the world. This year she has exhibited at the MIA Art Gallery and Sikka Art Fair in Dubai. In 2024 she had wide exposure at the Paris Expo Art Fair, and in Barcelona. Before this her work was shown at the Istanbul Art and Antique Fair. In 2017 she was a star at the Artem Gallery in Los Angeles. Her creativity is worthy of acknowledgement by the arts establishment in the UK, where she now wishes to live and work. By allowing her to come here, our arts scene will be enhanced by such an original presence. She will also bring with her a wealth of experience of middle-eastern cultures, and be in a pivotal position to engage with diverse audiences here. Indeed, my own gallery, the Baker Howard Contemporary, is excited to work with inspiring creatives such as Farnaz Faridfar. We appreciate the unique cultural heritage of Iran, and are looking forward to engaging yet more with her during our planned exhibitions in 2026.
As far as the specifics of her creative output are concerned, Faridfar typically applies acrylic and mixed media to canvas. Everything in her work is tightly controlled with meticulous attention to detail in her constructions of unsentimental form. The physical vectors, spaces and boundaries align with her philosophy that nothing should be left to chance. There is no wavering from her path. Nothing is indecisive. This is artwork that speaks of the atomisation of our society, where her technique is conducted with an intellectual and creative rigour. Her work is never etiolated; it is strong, dynamic and vibrant, and is anything but superficial. Fadifar’s way is the way; she will brook no other process in creating her distinctive visual language. The great art critic Herbert Read’s genetic idea posits an inevitable link between the work of art and the personality of the artist. But when considering her work, although it is meticulous, cool and almost mathematical in its precision, it is clear to me that Read’s view is persuasive but wide of the mark because Farnaz Faridfar is a warm and engaging artist, devoted to her work and her causes. She certainly has a mastery of large-scale geometric abstraction, with a scrupulously formalist geometric approach to her practice, but she utilises vibrant colours, intricate patterns, and calligraphic elements, and there is an approachability and an intrigue to her work.
Of greatest centrality is her use of linear Arabesques in modernist form. This is an arrangement of artistic decoration consisting of designs based on a rhythmic pattern with interlacing of decorative elements conducted with geometric precision. It is one of the major forms of Islamic ornament, but Faridfar takes this traditional patternation and develops it towards a more western aesthetic. Take 2023’s bifurcated canvas Sacred Flow with the top half employing classic Islamic motifs, and the bottom section reminiscent of the work of Ian Davenport with his waterfall of colours. Her highly distinctive painting is also ingenious, in that appearances are deceptive – from a distance the sculptural dot-relief surfaces of works such as Love Painting and Rainbow Painting look like they have been stitched, crochet-style, onto the canvas. One could opine that this is more analogous to a pointillist work of the post-impressionists, who balanced complementary colours to create optical illusions, but with Faridfar’s painting her colours do not meld or combine, but delineate, creating a striking and dynamic visual display. Her colours stand boldly, imperiously, distinct from each other. And Faridfar’s work aligns with the formalist views of the great art critic Clement Greenberg who celebrated the ‘flatness’ of the canvas, where the importance of planar, not recessional space, is acclaimed. Not for Faridfar the artifice of a 3D pretence, or a window into another world; this is about conceding that the canvas has an essential honesty in its flatness, in its lack of representation, emotion, or narrative content. Faridfar allows her art to analyse itself and to discover its unique characteristics. But then she diverges significantly from many artists whom Greenberg celebrated (such as Jackson Pollock, for instance), whose more aleatoric notions of letting the paint find its own way is antipathetic to Faridfar, who insists on tight control of everything she produces.
When considering other works such as The Broken Heart, the message and the metaphor is clear enough. The broken heart is such a classic trope of popular culture, but in Faridfar’s hands it is given a new twist. The heart may be broken, but it is cracked into compartmentalised units and these units can be reconstructed, and there is always hope! The heart may be fragmentated, but through love, it can resurrect, reconnect and reform. This is one of the most important messages of Fadifar’s entire oeuvre - the world may be an unsettling and dangerous place, but there is always hope, and through faith and love we can solve many of our problems. But one must not mistake her work as quixotic or transitory creations. Her visual images have a permanence, a form, and a dynamic perspective that has been generated by Faridfar’s artistic qualities, and her engagement with contemporary real-world geo-political realities, as aforementioned. She blends scientific understanding of colour with creative intuition, but in Broken Heart (as in all her works), Faridfar never lets her emotions get the better of her, and with her profound connection to colour and form she strives to infuse each piece with meaning.
She is the master (mistress) of her world and her subject matter, which is by-and-large aligned with Islamic traditions, but with one major divergence - Islamic art does not permit the human to be visualised. However, Faridfar has responded to her move out of Iran by including female faces, notwithstanding that her physiognomies are schematic and are more illustrative than representative. Her work fuses a degree of femininity with a sense of unease. In all of her images her female subjects have agency as we note their use of lip-stick, make-up and sunglasses. Some of her subjects even play pool, but they always appear behind Islamic style lattice work, as if they are ultimately unable to break out from imposed societal constraints. And here we note the alterity of her work, which recognises a radical difference between the self and others, and from proscribed traditions weighed against the realities of living in the post-modern word in which we find ourselves. Faridfar would like to be unconstrained, and to conduct her artistic practice on her own terms, but she is a realist who lives in a compromised world. However, a residency in the UK will allow her practice to blossom, and will undoubtedly give her the freedom to express the full range of her creativity and develop her art into new areas, new mediums and new techniques, which herald an exciting future.
Miha Murn's monograph
Miha Murn is a multi-disciplinary artist, whose work bestrides the intersections of the analogue and digital world’s. He has given himself the task of producing artworks in seemingly all creative mediums, not just traditional painting and sculpture, but collage, assemblage, drawing, ready-mades, and photography. His work, like art history itself, then progresses onto the more contemporary scene of digital graphics, computer-generated imagery, and 3D inspired installations (all of Murn’s installations are angular, mechanistic, and beautifully crafted). The entirety of his oeuvre is a tribute to his inexhaustible creative imagination, and to his engagement with the contemporary world.
Considering his work as a totality, one can discern a high degree of intertextuality as Murn draws on anything and everything that excites him and that he finds relevant. To him, the world is a multifaceted, contradictory, and sometimes discombobulating place, and his art reflects the frenetic, dynamic, and colourful times in which we live. But his creative output also exemplifies the psychological engagement of an artist who is trying to make sense of our complex world where Artificial Intelligence and the digital sphere sometimes appears to be replacing human interactions. His cultural lineage is broad and wide, as he draws upon architecture, iconography, press cuttings, royalty, and the sometimes-kitsch fetishisation of consumer goods. Murn’s reference points have no restrictions and no bounds, and his work eliminates reason, judgement, and restraint, which are all discarded as he embraces the contemporary world in a whirl of dynamic colour, emotional response, and constructions of significant form. Miha Murn’s paintings are full of life, zest, and energy. Note the frenzied use and application of colour in his dynamic world where a free-for-all melee of screaming imagery jolts the senses. He vigorously deploys iconographic subject matter which imbue his canvasses with dramatic visions and vivid leitmotifs. These fall into one of two camps; either the purely abstract, or the more physiognomic fragmentation of corporeality in an avowedly synthetic cubist style. He clearly draws as much inspiration from Picasso as he does from Pollock. He is even chancing his arm as a photographer; and here we note his apprehension about the discombobulation we all sometimes feel in an urban environment which can be alienating. He reflects upon the social milieu of the city, and in his work there are mere indications of humanity, but ostensibly, we discern only oblique and obscure fragments of society and a sometimes bleak and dystopian aesthetic. I was taken by certain elements in his imagery that are sometimes reflected back through the prism of a window pane or mediated through glass.
If Miha Murn was not so infused with business success, and any number of high-level accomplishments outside the art world, he would no doubt be regarded as something of a flaneur, that highly observant urban wanderer, as he glides about the city rationalising, analysing, contextualising, representing, and philosophising about his place in the world, and what it means to be a human in the twenty first century. This is an artist who is grappling with the modern world in all its multi-faceted complexity, and one who draws inspiration from an incredible range of sources. But this is also an artist who yearns for an identity, a style, an aesthetic which can appreciably be acknowledged as his own. Until his style develops to this point, we have the unalloyed pleasure of enjoying his art works which burst out of the canvas with such incredible vigour, life and energy.
December 2022
National Press
National press coverage is the gold standard. RBH will help you write relevant, persuasive copy and letters which will get you noticed.
An extract from a recent book review of Flora Koszeghy's art works:
.....these new viewpoints are producing a ‘vista of possibilities’ with her transformations and fusions of human and mechanistic forms, as the work delves into thought-provoking nooks and crannies of physicality and psychology. By exploring these dark and disturbing aspects of their physical and psychic worlds the metaphysical artists of the time strove to understand and express the two aspects of reality: that day-to-day existence of which we are all aware, and the ‘spectral’ or metaphysical manifestation of their mindset. The objective was to reach that elusive second metaphysical state in their works where analysis of one’s own artistic experience required a disinterested or depersonalised attitude to ensure that mental data would not be clouded by irrelevant personal concerns, (I deal with this area in more detail later in this evaluation).
Flora Koszeghy is certainly not a teleological artist striving for that apotheosis of form, her art is about communicating a specific aesthetic and the desire to create imperfect forms: sometimes gritty, gnarly, disturbing, and amorphous forms. And her ideas are anything but harmonious; these are paintings that disquiet, that jar, that disturb, but most of all that make us think, particularly about the world around us and our place in it. Her images float on the border of unrecognisability, thus engaging the viewer in her created space. We try to process and understand her world, but perhaps the enigmatic nature of her oeuvre will never be fully understood. Koszeghy requires us to appreciate, above all else, ‘the thing in itself’’ - that essential reality that has a significance beyond its immediate appearance. One of the most persuasive aspects of her work is that it appears to be full of contradictions, the complexities of which always remove it from the realm of the quotidian and the everyday, and take it to a more transcendental space where we confront those dark, technical, and sometimes deeply sexual (never sensual) elements of her work.
Her subject matter is always focussed on the small details and the complex components that make up (perhaps) much larger systems, but her work is sometimes produced on a grand scale as she creates canvasses with an immensity of being. In terms of the actual physical presence of her work, questions of space, volume and scope are tackled with an almost spiritual zeal, as she connects issues of politics, theoretical practice, religion, and social dynamics. But even when she is working on a much smaller scale, her canvasses always have a dark and sometimes disturbing ‘hybridity’ about them, as she transgresses social mores to produce some fantastical paintings where her amorphous imagery takes us on a journey into her strange world of weird arrangements, structures and forms, where reality dissipates and metaphors that work on our imaginations gain traction.......
Philippines Art Fair 2020
........established itself as the Art Fair to see and be seen for the locals, and an increasingly diverse and sophisticated regional audience. Philippines 2020 was very much in the contemporary biennial concept that ‘anything goes’. On show were sculptures, video work, mixed media compositions, performance art, crafts, art house cinema, lectures & talks, and, of course, a huge number of paintings. The hero of the day was clearly Sol LeWitt (Fig 1) whose mid to-late-twentieth century philosophising was a breakthrough in conceptual minimalism. The organisers drew considerable inspiration from LeWitt’s oeuvre, and his thoughts were conspicuously scrawled on the walls on each floor. However, this appeared to have little relevance to the overarching narrative of this mainly commercial show (where most of the best works had apparently been sold during the vernissage); perhaps the organisers lacked conviction and were seeking a grand philosophy to underpin their modus operandi?
For this catholically observant country, where religion plays a central role, the taint of personal or collective restraint and/or self-censorship was refreshingly absent. But themes of religiosity, devotion and sanctity were frequently played out in one form or another by many of the artistic practitioners present. But there were also many juxtapositions of the profound with the banal - highbrow conjoined with kitsch, as many artists took a postmodern approach to the interpretation and representation of their physical and phenomenological worlds. Indeed, a number of artists were conspicuously having fun and being playful – what a refreshing contrast from many a solipsistic Western artist taking themselves and their oeuvre too seriously. Now, easily distinguishable from the many art works of quality, intrigue, excellence in draftesmanship and/or technical skill were the bizarre......
Abu Dhabi Louvre opening
......the Emirate which has been developed into a small oasis of culture on this barren foreshore. All good so far. However, upon entry the heart sinks when confronted with several blue canvasses from the execrable Cy Twombly. Yes, he may well be in the modern canon, but does that make him any good, and does he contribute anything to the development of art? Judge for yourselves. The temporary exhibition of globes 'Visions of the World' was an oh-so-classy and sumptuous display of huge interest and was an enthralling adventure down many avenues of scientific and artistic discovery and learning. ‘From One Louvre to Another’ successfully integrated stills juxtaposed with videos and gave an in-depth and colourful analysis of the original Louvre’s development.
The francophone influence here is everywhere, and that’s not surprising as they must have invested millions in this venture, so why not! But those crafty French have given some significant pieces but have been careful to keep their vast collection of the best work in Paris, and masterpieces from the canon are conspicuously absent. We note two small and undistinguished Claude’s, a couple from Vernet and a small sketch of Jacques-Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii, but why not the real masterpiece, even temporarily? Swaps and loans would be entirely appropriate for this type of institution. The museum’s apparent core-concept seems to be the establishing of a cultural dialogue between civilizations, and specifically, a reflection upon......
Artists' biographies
Below are selected examples of artist's biographies written by RBH. He is always happy to receive multifarious documents, scribbled notes, source material and any catalogue information that you care to provide, which he then develops into a coherent and logical artist biography with the correct hierarchy of information. He will always keep the nub and emphasis of the original documents received in crafting his biographies. These can then be used by the artist for other promotional purposes. Names here have been replaced with parentheses. Fees to produce these are kept at a very affordable level.
(.......) art education was in the West Country where he was awarded his fine art honours degree. He paints people in staged-looking situations and makes use of furniture, clothing and other props that provide a range of surfaces and textures. He will frequently insert animals or models of animals that have a historical relationship with humanity, and even insert himself into paintings, in reflections or as a spectator/voyeur; a creative device regularly used by Caravaggio, Velázquez and Rembrandt. The artist comments: ‘I explore compositions and imagery of the great European painters of the High Renaissance and Baroque periods. My aesthetic has been informed by research into the historical context and technique of these masters, yet in style is expressive of a contemporary sensibility and a playful enjoyment of the medium of paint’.
The starting point for a painting or series from (.......) usually originates from a simple desire to paint something he has seen like a sky, an interior, an item of clothing or a person who has sparked his imagination. After the initial inspiration he develops situations, relationships and anecdotes that enrich the narratives of the paintings and allow him to explore and articulate themes that are occupying his mind. A good example of this would be the ironic title Take Me I’m Yours from Squeeze, one of his favourite bands of the 1980’s, which contains the line that has always had resonance to him, ‘Forever there will be a Heaven in Your Kiss’. The identity numbers on the police helmets refer to Aphorism 341 - a paragraph by Nietzsche that introduces us to Eternal Recurrence, and 147 which is the highest score possible in a game of snooker.
(.......) comments that he is not particularly a political artist, but it is impossible to ignore today’s politics to which he responds creatively. The Ecstasy (St. Francis and the Angel) was modelled on the artist Madeleina Kay, an illustrator and political activist from Sheffield. She was the Young European of the Year 2018, who campaigned to promote the European Union and for the United Kingdom to remain a member. (.......) has held a residency at Nástupište gallery in Slovakia, and has had many solo and group exhibitions over the last few years including The Wilderness Haven at St. Pancras New Church, Twelve Months Notice at Access Space in Sheffield, and Emergence at the Riverside Kelham, Sheffield. He participated in the Let’s Talk About the Anthropocene group show at Brighton University. (.......) work is held in many private collections in London, Los Angeles and Washington. Sheffield
For self-taught Dutch artist (.......), the world is out of balance, which is evident in the human & environmental challenges with which we are currently faced. (.......) craves a world where compassion, intuition and harmony are the key elements for living. She feels her art is filled with hope and inspiration and this has the potential to positively change viewers to become aware of their own feelings and beliefs, making space for their own true self. (.......) Innertotem’ series came about through her desire to reconnect and to bring everyone closer to nature and by drawing on the vast potential of who we truly are. Her aims are to encourage and support people to reclaim their power, to overcome their limiting beliefs, and to discover their talents with the intention of moving toward a unique purpose in life. Only then, (.....) believes, will we authentically connect and create with each other, thus enabling us to inspire others and to share our gifts, which in turn has the power to impact humanity for the better. This insightful and intuitive attitude to the world is partly explained by the fact that she has lived in Asia with her two daughters on the beautiful ‘Island of Gods’ in Bali for more than 20 years. She speaks the Language of the West whilst simultaneously sensing the subtle unspoken energies of the East.
Unique to (.......) art is the mixing and matching of different styles, which at first glance may seem contentious, but upon closer examination one begins to appreciate that the paintings are a fantastic cornucopia of diverse humanistic, floral and animal motifs that flow with perfect balance to create a beautiful harmony of composition. The artist also loves to modify her palette and she sometimes allows a thicker, more impasto, style to dominate with the addition of hand-torn paper patterns and old street posters. The subtle detailing and harmonious colour combinations make her art nothing short of amazing to the viewer. As the artist herself says, ‘In my world, art bridges my inner source of wisdom and the outer world in which I live. My paintings are more than visual creations; they are a means of conveying energy and insight by triggering positive thoughts and emotions’. (.......) continues by suggesting that the canvass becomes a personal totem to one who chooses it; it empowers a deeper consideration into the essence of who we truly are, giving inspiration to our journey. Among her achievements, she is proud to have had one of her wildlife paintings signed by nature warrior and actor Leonardo DiCaprio......
(.......) was born in Germany from Greek parents. He grew up alternatively in Germany and Greece, but ultimately chose England to complete his Masters’ Degree in Art and Design. As well as an aspiring artist, he has been employed in business and digital marketing capacities, and is currently working as a motion graphic designer in London.
(.......) multi-cultural upbringing enabled him to develop his oeuvre in dark materialism, gender inequalities, and fear & uncertainty. His artistic inspiration comes from a world that appears to be in crisis, and his work is informed by the complexities of the human condition and its moral and emotional exigencies which are embodied in his dark and dystopian physiognomies. His human beings emerge through the movement of the body and their interaction with space; the bodies are naked, heightening their distance from socially constructed views of class, distinction, beauty, and sexuality. Rather than focusing on cognitive justifications and expressions, he follows human gestures, taking physical interactions as signs for meanings, emotions, and relations.
(.......) was born in Iran, and graduated from the Islamic Azad University in Tehran. From her early childhood she always had great curiosity to seek the truth, and it was during these formative years that (.......) also began to examine her own mindset in tandem with her studies of other human beings. The discipline of philosophy, as a path to personal enlightenment, was crucial to the artist discovering the obscure and lost pieces of her inner self and her unknown and uncontrollable dimensions. But more important than philosophy was art. Art has always been (.......) primary study inspiration and motivating factor, and her most important method of communicating with the world.
In the process of artistic creation, she also connects to her own true self; this perspective gives her a deeper and more transparent insight into the outside world and its concepts. These concepts are frequently humanistic in nature, such as anxiety, fear, turmoil, scepticism, distrust and helplessness; they have all informed her work, and they seem to (.......) to be the principal characteristics of our contemporary lives. Although sometimes we may be filled with anxiety and doubt, (.......) suggests that we have still a colourful and ornate world in which to socialise and to fill any ‘empty spaces’ in our souls. The artist suggests that ‘even in the moment we become immersed in ourselves, we are less familiar with ourselves’. On one level, (.......) believes that evasion and self-doubt deprive humans of their true identity, but on another level the battle between science, philosophy and religious beliefs has removed any form of ‘sanctuary’ that was once our ancestors’ legacy. (.......) artworks emerge from colours, disturbances and suspensions in her deepest inner layers to form raindrops of sharp abstract notions, as well as a touch of beautiful and subtle truth.