For the 2025 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong, Rossi & Rossi is pleased to present a solo booth dedicated to the visionary Iranian American artist Siah Armajani (1939–2020), with a Kabinett featuring a new series of paintings by Szelit Cheung (b. 1988). A selection of early and rare works by Armajani, recently uncovered at his studio in Minneapolis, will be on view alongside his 2009 drawings on mylar titled Disaster of War (After Goya).‍

Early Works by Siah Armajani‍

Renowned for his sculptural works and public art, Siah Armajani engaged deeply with the concepts of democracy and community as well as the role of art in the public sphere. He immigrated to the United States from Iran in 1960 as a form of political exile, and his early works reflect the deep concern he held for injustice. Untitled (1954) is the earliest example of such a work: rendered in white ink on a black gouache board, the drawing was made in response to the uprooted lives of the underprivileged after a coup d’état ended the government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. Armajani noted, ‘Tehran became dark, pitch black; there was silence’.

This disdain for war and conflict fuelled Armajani throughout his artistic career. The killing of Iranian philosophy student Neda Agha-Sultan in 2009 during the presidential election protests in Tehran prompted the artist’s series Disaster of War (After Goya) (2009). In it, Armajani drew on mylar with an approach similar to that which Goya had employed in his The Disasters of War (1810–20) prints. Thus, the human cost of violence, rather than grand scenes of conquest and destruction, took centre stage. Yet whilst Goya expelled colour in his etchings, Armajani introduced two key hues: green, symbolising the Islamic Revolution, and a touch of red, the universal symbol of blood.

A body of Armajani’s works on paper from the 1960s will also be shown for the first time at Art Basel Hong Kong. Entering the post-industrial age of the computer, Armajani made works that marry computer-generated technology and handmade marks. Via an art-and-technology fascination with cutting-edge developments in computing capabilities, he explored conceptual art’s preoccupation with the visual and verbal signifiers of semiotics. His Untitled series (1966–67) consists of five works on paper that were initially sales reports brought home by his wife, Barbara. She had been working at Dayton’s Department Store in Minneapolis, which was amongst the first to use ‘print-punch’ reports to track apparel sale. Around the same time, the artist was frequenting the University of Minnesota’s Hybrid Computer Laboratory and the nearby Control Data Corporation to learn early computing languages; he took interest in these sheets and began to superimpose drawings on top of the reports.

Kabinett: Szelit Cheung‍

Living between Hong Kong and Melbourne, Szelit Cheung (b. 1988) has been investigating light, space and shadow since 2015. His most recent paintings depict the essence of void through compositions of empty spaces. Like intricate puzzles, Cheung’s works trace light within empty rooms and corridors as it penetrates windows and bounces off walls. The absence of objects or figures from his paintings frees up the audience’s gaze, allowing viewers to wonder within the artist’s spaces.

To create his latest paintings, Cheung was granted permission by the estate of Siah Armajani to access the late artist’s archival images and architectural models. Amongst these materials was Armajani’s maquette series, Dictionary for Building, which he began in 1974. It encompasses a myriad of architectural elements and countless possibilities in their combination. Grounding his inspiration on this project from half a decade ago, Cheung integrated Armajani’s affinity for interior architecture into his depiction of light-filled spaces.