Shohreh Mehran’s method of making art might seem straightforward: she photographs her subjects; digitally manipulates the color, backgrounds and compositions of those photographs; prints them; and paints the result with precision. This may seem like the typical photo-realist approach. The simplicity of the method – take a piece of life, tweak it, and represent it accurately – is immediately complicated, however, when one realizes that she is either taking photographs of photographs, or photographing subjects that are deliberately and persistently avoiding the photographer. In other words, Mehran’s subjects are either veiling themselves behind the ideology of representation, or veiling themselves altogether, avoiding representation, and presenting this avoidance itself as a subject for representation. Mehran is, therefore, a photo-realist painter only in a strict or skewed sense: her work does not simply represent a reality, it represents a reality in the act of escaping representation.
Born in 1958 in Ardebil, Iran
Education:
BA Graphic Art, Tehran College of Art, Tehran, Iran
Solo Exhibitions:
2024 Etemad Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2019 Etemad Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2015 “Covers”, Etemad Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2013 “Defaced”, Etemad Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2010 “Schoolgirls”, Etemad Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2007 “Schoolgirls”, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2005 “Under Construction”, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2003 “Cityscapes”, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2001 “Covers”, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1999 “Murals”, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1997 “Cityscapes”, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1995 “Women”, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1993 “Cityscapes”, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Group Exhibitions:
2023 Soft edge of the blade [Vol 2], Dastan Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2023 Realism, Dastan Gallery, London, UK
2023 Iranian Contemporary Art and Shifting Realities, Bavan Gallery, London, UK
2023 Connective Strings of Resilience, Bavan Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2020 On Paper, Etemad Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2018 TeerArt Fair, Tehran, Iran
2012 Royal Academy, Katara Arts Center, Doha, Qatar
2011 Sharjah Biennial 10, Sharja, UAE
2010 Slick10 Paris, France
2010 “Iran Today”, Brigitte Schenk Gallery, Koln, Germany
2007 Artspace Gallery, London, England
2007 Art London Gallery, London, England
2001 Signature Gallery, Munster, Germany
2000 The United Nations, New York, USA
1992 Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1991 Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1989 Tehran International Expo, Tehran, Iran
1989 Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran
1988 Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran
1985 Goethe Institute, Tehran, Iran
