LOS ANGELES — During the Cold War, the CIA secretly funded cultural initiatives promoting abstract expressionism as a shining example of American freedom and democracy. At the same time, he supported a coup that overthrew the democratic government of Iran, the home country of artist Farshid Bazmandegan. These incongruous actions of our government in the mid-20th century provide the starting point for Bazmandegan’s solo exhibition, Drift between the twoat the Track 16 gallery.

The artist focuses on a few key materials: emergency blankets, tar, and steel oil drums. These documents reference the displacement and human cost of our government’s actions around the world, as well as the natural resources that determine much of our foreign policy. Indeed, one of the main reasons for the 1953 coup was to protect British oil interests in Iran.

The flattened steel oil barrel in “Untitled” (2022) imitates the proportions and shape of a flag with three horizontal stripes. It’s a darkly humorous commentary on how, in the eyes of some governments, entire countries can be reduced to the resources that can be extracted from them. The surface of the drum is covered in scratches and scuffs, perhaps symbolizing the human cost of such abstractions or the tarnishing of a nation’s image left in its destructive wake.

“Landscape of Exile” (2024), like many works in this exhibition, begins with a gold relief blanket that has been glued to a tar-covered wooden panel. Bazmandegan burned parts of the piece, melting the glittering gold of the cover so that the tar bubbled up to reveal a deep black painterly surface; other parts of the work were painted in various blues and reds. If it were simply painting on canvas, this work could easily have been done by a mid-century American abstract painter.

These modestly sized, materially appealing and elegantly executed works would do well in a commercial art setting. This only heightens the sense of cognitive dissonance in Bazmandegan’s work. The history of painting is filled with artists who weave discordant, even contradictory shapes, forms, or colors into a single image. The artist extends this idea beyond formal relationships to include the duplicity of so-called democratic countries acting in the service of capitalism’s insatiable appetite for resources.

By intentionally making such work (two larger, less salable sculptural installations are also present in the exhibition) and connecting the language of Abstract Expressionism to the 1953 coup, Bazmandegan connects the art industry to geopolitics, challenging us to consider the ways in which we, individually and collectively in the art industry, might also be involved in a complex negotiation of denial and strategic ignorance. (As if to drive this point home, Trump recently announcement that he chose John Phelan, a major donor to his campaign and trustee of the Whitney Museum, as his choice to serve as Secretary of the Navy.)

On my more cynical days, I view the art industry as another tool for creating and preserving the wealth and legacy of plutocrats. But through my engagement in the arts, I also discovered an intellectually engaging landscape and some truly wonderful people. What is the role of an artist working in a broken industry, entangled and complicit in beauty at the same time And multiple overlapping harmful systems? Bazmandegan’s work offers no answers, but it does give the viewer space to see and contemplate some of the contradictions endemic to contemporary life.

Farshid Bazmandegan: drifting between the two continues at Track 16 Gallery (1206 Maple Avenue, Suite 100, Fashion District, Los Angeles) until December 21. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.