Negar Sepehr

recently collected several editions by the iranian artist @c3naaX in light of what’s happening in iran, these works resonate far more deeply for me now than when i first encountered some of them. the current moment in iran clarifies the perspective behind the imagery in c3’s work & sharpens what his art has been speaking to all along from left to right, top to bottom: - the trilogy tryptic parts i–iii: they see, they kill, they fall - leviathan (@noble_gallery) - the dreamer - the girl with a blood earring - pepencounter | @FAKERARES_XCP series 9 card 457 - serenity in murder - martyrdom (collab with @jakethedegen) the work often reads as restrained or coded protest shaped by the realities of life under the iranian regime. certain works, such as the trilogy, feel uncannily aligned with current events & where they appear to be heading many of these pieces are intentionally minted through collaborative contracts with other artists or galleries to bypass platform censorship of iranian art. others are outright suppressed by major platforms like opensea & are effectively invisible. as a result, the work is difficult to locate, rarely listed & must be actively sought out that difficulty mirrors the challenge of expressing truth under repression. for that reason, it feels important to keep shedding light on the work of iranian artists who cannot freely express themselves without personal risk. these works are significant to the history of crypto art for what they were able to express & preserve