TEHRAN -- The prestigious U.S. art magazine Utne (Understanding the next evolution) has named Iran’s Ahmad Nadalian and four nationals of other countries as the world’s top five earth artists in its May-June 2006 edition, ISNA reported on Tuesday.

Utne has published photos of Nadalian’s globally distributed carved rock art and works of the other artists from Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States.

Utne calls Nadalian “a human who loves stones and water”.

“Ahmad Nadalian moves like a fish transgressing international borders. From his home in the mountainous region of Damavand in Iran, Nadalian has traveled widely, leaving graphic messages on all continents but Antarctica in the form of etched stones, thousands of them, large and small, on which he has inscribed or painted fish, crabs, nautilus spirals, and human hands, feet, and faces. Nadalian works with local residents, including children, hiding stones, burying them, and casting them into water.

‘I come from a village,’ he says.

‘I live and work there, but I cooperate with the people of the global village,’” the magazine wrote.

Last May, Nadalian held an international land art festival at Paradis, a center he established in Polur for the creation and exhibition of art in nature.

Artists from Italy, the United States, Germany, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, France, Poland, India, Thailand, and China attended the festival.

He became more famous in the West after his works were displayed in the 50th Biennale of Venice in 2003.

His works are now scattered in many countries including Italy, Germany, the U.S., Spain, France, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Lebanon, and his homeland Iran.

In a new symbolic move, Nadalian and a team of his students have recently built nests based on their original structures and have started installing them in gardens and urban areas.