Iranian artist's first solo exhibition at Long Museum West Bund
"Vortex of lovers", 2023-2024
Acrylic and oil on canvas, 230 x 120 cm
© Mehdi Ghadyanloo. Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech
The first museum solo exhibition by Iranian artist Mehdi Ghadyanloo is showing at the Long Museum West Bund through July 28.
The exhibition features 12 new paintings and works on paper, alongside older works.
Born in 1981 in Karaj, a northern city in Iran, Ghadyanloo now lives and works in Germany. After growing up near the agricultural fields in the suburbs of Tehran, Ghadyanloo graduated from the College of Fine Arts of Tehran University in 2005.
Known primarily for his gigantic trompe l'oeil-style murals in central Tehran, Ghadyanloo also creates paintings, with surreal and minimalistic themes.
He provides an autobiographical perspective, portraying the landscapes of his youth, his memories of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), and his life experience in the Islamic Republic.
Although at times sombre and even suggestive of a failed utopia, Ghadyanloo's work conveys hope that change can be affected, and it speaks with joy of what remains glorious in gloomy times.
"The double sunrise", 2023-2024. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 200 x 200 cm
© Mehdi Ghadyanloo. Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech
Between 2004 and 2011, he painted more than 100 gigantic murals throughout Iran's capital, to elevate the visual quality of life in Tehran and bring hope and color to the city. In 2016, he became the first Iranian artist to be commissioned in both Iran and the United States since the revolution in 1979, when he completed a massive mural for the Rose Kennedy Greenway project in Boston.
The common motifs in his murals are display windows (or boxes) and playground equipment for children, no doubt related to his childhood memories. After all, in a war-torn era, being able to play outside freely was an unattainable luxury for a child. By the time the war ended and free play became allowed for boys, his boyhood had already passed. Thus, what could not be can only be placed in a series of display windows (or boxes), laid out on canvas.
In his recent works, the artist depicts a collection of children's play equipment of all sizes, mostly placed within a box-shaped window, generating a surreal and symbolic image under the top light.
Date: Through July 28 (closed on Mondays) 10am-5:30pm (Tuesday to Thursday), 10am-8pm (Friday to Sunday)
Venue: Long Museum (West Bund)
Address: 3398 Longteng Avenue 龙腾大道3398号
Admission: 100 yuan (US$13.90)
