MEHDI GHADYANLOO

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 perspec-tive, portraying the landscapes of his youth, his memories of Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), 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 effected, and it speaks with joy of what remains glorious in gloomy times. Mehdi Ghadyanloo is also considered one of Middle East’s leading public artists.Between 2004 and 2011, he painted over 100 gigantic murals throughout Iran’s capital,to elevate the visual quality of life in Tehran to bring hope and color to the Grey, depressed city of Tehran. In 2016 he became the first Iranian artist to be commissioned in both Iran and the US since the revolution in 1979, when he completed a massive mural for the Rose Kennedy Greenway project in Boston, US.

“Mehdi Ghadyanloo uses the trompe l’œil technique of his murals to compose his recent paintings, and they take on the shape of square boxes with dream-like imagery and hyperrealistic technique. Their architectural appearance reflects the artist’s investigation into designing and representing space on the canvas, evoking the visual and metaphysical constructions of Giorgio de Chirico. Ghadyanloo’s meticulous technique reminds us that in his youth he painted Persian miniatures in Iran. Each of his painting-boxes reveals his bril-liant ability to trick our eyes and our perception of reality. On what we thought was a flat surface, there appears a fenced-in space or a maze of slides.”

Courtesy Almine Rech