Image by Amir FallahImage by 20080705fallah.jpg Amir Fallah's "Love Healing Center."

Update September 13: The Charleston City Paper went to see and was fairly intrigued, saying:
But coming through unequivocally, and making this work as personal as it is cultural, is Fallah's tactile sense of who he is and how he lives. It shows that memory is saturated with emotions, and that emotions fuel the creativity we use to express ourselves.

Original post: Artist and designer Amir Fallah will present an exhibit from 6-9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5 at Redux. A news release states his work will feature his "legendary fort/terrariums." View a slideshow of some of his work.

Fallah is also the creator of art and culture magazine Beautiful/Decay.

The work will remain on view from Sept. 5 to Oct. 18.

Here's some highlights from that news release:
Boyhood memory, the intensity of love and relationships, both new and old, are reoccurring themes in the work of Amir H. Fallah. The prickly cactus, alluring yet dangerous, contained and cared for in colorful pots, precariously rests upon naively constructed pedestals which serve as visual metaphors for love and relationships in Fallah’s paintings.

The pedestals and forts dwell unconcealed in landscapes that appear both futuristic and prehistoric with intensely colorful, gradient-laden backgrounds. Each fort or pedestal appears as if it were built by a gang of boys using scrap wood and found materials to construct a secret clubhouse where adolescent crushes are candidly confessed. Cacti and potted plants mingle with all manner of household knick-knacks on the teetering, quickly constructed arrangements, reminding us of the eager need for achievement that we often find ourselves experiencing in relationships. All of the paintings contain a decorative border, quietly ornate, a reference to Iranian Miniature Painting and Fallah’s cultural heritage.

Fallah approaches each sculpture (life-size forts and terrariums) and painting spontaneously, working with various materials. In his recent series of paintings, I Put You on a Pedestal, he introduced collage, literally building each pedestal or fort on the canvas, working out the logistics of the construction, both visually and technically, along the way. The result is a candid expression of Fallah’s process.