My 2026 solo show, Hybrid Baroque, in search of new sensoria at Hillyer Gallery, received a great review from Mark Jenkins, a prominent Washington Post art critic, on his blog, DisCerning Eye, a Substack publication that reviews exhibitions in the Washington, DC area. Here is the excerpt courtesy of the author:

“A FUGUE OF VISUAL COUNTERPOINTS—Abol Bahadori’s mixed-media pictures are simultaneously mythical and realistic, technocratic and human, neoclassical and psychedelic, solid and wispy. “Hybrid Baroque,” The title of the Northern Virginia artist’s IA&A at Hillyer show, captures only some of those dualities.

It might seem that Bahadori’s artworks begin with their settings, precisely rendered architectural fantasies stuffed with arches, columns, and staircases. These stage sets appear to Greco-Roman in inspiration, and contribute to the pictures’s strong sense of depth. Within the appealingly anachronistic environs, the artist places bodies in motion — crouching, curling, or perhaps flying. Several of the figures in this series sport a set of wings, whether angelic or insect-like. Other mythological references include the book of Genesis, whose tale of Eve, serpent, and apple is relocated to architecturally eclectic quarters in “Temple of Eden.”

Bahadori identifies as one of his precursors “Eastern miniatures,” by which he presumably means Persian and Mughal-period Indian book illustrations. Where those ornate pictures were rich with gold and other mineral hues, the artist’s work features artificial-looking modern colors, notably day-glo pinks and oranges. Bahadori’s fantastic collage-print-paintings draw from many cultures, their many elements ready to be unified by the glow of ultraviolet light.”

— Mark Jenkins