"Carpets were a part of my childhood growing up in England. I remember my father's rug shop, and how he would hand-dye sections of carpets that had faded away, in order to bring them back to their original vibrant colors."—K.P.

"Portuguese sailors trailing the Silk Road, Chinese dragons and flying horses, Indian warriors and Buddha-like figures, floral patterns reminiscent of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement—for Kour Pour, Persian carpets aren't simply decorative artifacts; his meticulous and attentive selection of rugs dating from the 16th century to the 1960s traces a history of the modern age. The commingling of imageries in these paintings points to ancient encounters between different cultures and the resulting compositions are a testament to those early exchanges that led to the development of modern taste.

"Each of his paintings references a specific rug, that Pour has identified through research of auction and exhibition catalogues. The image of the rug is silkscreened onto a canvas that has been primed with several layers of tinted gesso. Pour's use of silkscreen further removes his paintings from the rugs they reference: from the tangible work of laborious weavers, they are turned into flat images. Yet, Pour's paintings are anything but flat. The gesso he uses as primer is applied onto the canvas in horizontal and vertical strokes with a broom stick, to recreate the warp and weft of woven rugs.

"Once the canvas has been silkscreened, the details of each composition are carefully hand painted. Silk Road Old Continent merchants admired Asian textiles and used their techniques to create images and colors more appropriate for the European taste. In the same vein, Pour's palette differs from the colors of the rugs he references and his use of neon hues can't help but bring to mind the de rigeur gear on the beaches of Los Angeles, where he lives and works.

"After months of priming, silkscreening and painting, Pour uses a circular sander to erase areas of the paintings. He then returns to them in order to repaint what has been lost, wherever possible. In the resulting paintings, he has obliterated parts of the narrative while highlighting others, as if editing the history he has endeavored to tell."—FlatSurface