Shiraz Gallery is located in Goodwood, Adelaide in an old bluestone church that was consecrated by the Bishop of Adelaide in 1892. It provides a perfect location for the extensive collection of rugs and carpets exhibited there. The range of rugs, carpets and kilims cater for the astute collector with ‘benchmark’ pieces from master weavers’ workshops to rare and unusual village and tribal weavings. The gallery also houses a collection of modern rugs, and custom designed rugs, which is a speciality of Shiraz Gallery. There is also a wide variety of ‘everyday’ pieces for those wishing to decorate their houses with the ornamental beauty offered by hand-knotted rugs and carpets, and kilims.
Shiraz Gallery was established by Javad & Heather Alikorki in 1980.
Born in Tehran, Javad had grown up with rugs but it was in Italy that his appreciation and love for this fascinating art form grew as he became more deeply interested in their ancient origins and the connections with everyday life of his homeland.
Javad has shown interest in the art of Persian carpet making since his student years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. To support himself, during his semester breaks he arranged exhibitions for a rug dealer in different cities and towns in Italy. He completed his four-year course in stage design (Scenografia) and a diploma in photography in Florence. He then went on to study film making in London at the London Film School. By the time he had completed his two-year course in the technique of film-making, he had made two films: a 19 minute documentary about housing in London and a 9 minute dramatised documentary. When he came to Adelaide he submitted them to the Adelaide Film Festival and had both films shown in the festival.
The town of Shiraz, after which he named his Gallery, is in the Fars region of Southern Persia and was once the capital of the country. Shiraz is famous for where roses, pomegranates and the Shiraz grape were first cultivated and being the birthplace of great poets such as Ha’fez. Javad felt it a very auspicious name for his new business venture in South Australia. He travels to Iran on a regular basis to purchase rugs, carpets, kilims and textiles. During these buying trips he also finds time to pursue his other great passion of photography.
Javad is highly regarded in Australia as an authority in his field and is a Government appointed valuer under the Cultural Gifts Program.