In 2014, Amir H. Fallah scoured listings for estate sales near his home in Los Angeles before picking one to attend, solely based on the intriguing description: “From the Primitive to the Present.” There, he acquired diaries, home movies, photographs, clothing, and other objects from a family who had lived in the area for a generation. Fallah then used the rescued objects to uncover details about the family, including their names and occupations, to create a new narrative realized through painting, collage, and sculpture.

Fallah first created five abstracted portraits of contemporaneous family members. These faceless renderings were inspired by the objects and fabric patterns that once belonged to the anonymous individuals. He then created a series of collaged portraits, including Ancestors 1 and Ancestors 2, by working atop turn-of-the-century photographs of the family’s ancestors. While the two series are quite different stylistically, the works all speak to Fallah’s interest in universality. By stripping away – or in the case of Ancestors, covering up – all recognizable attributes, Fallah transforms the individuals from specific to general; the portraits are no one and everyone, but more importantly, they highlight the fallibility of defining others based on superficial traits of race, gender, age, and ethnicity. After completing the first series of paintings, Fallah collected dried glaze and oil paint residue from his palette to create collages like those on view in True Likeness. Thus, all of the works about this family now hold the same DNA, creating a dialogue between old and new, between one generation and the next.

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