Farhad Moshiri
Farhad Moshiri is an Iranian artist currently based in Tehran. His work is rooted in Pop art dialect with a subtle, subversive socio-political commentary. He plays an active part in Iran’s contemporary art scene.
Education
He was born in 1963 in Iran and came to the United States in the 1980s to attend the California Institute of the Arts where he first started experimenting with installations, video art and painting. After school and several more years in the U.S., he returned to Iran in 1991. He subsequently became well known for his ironic interpretations of hybrids between traditional Iranian forms and those of the consumerist and globalized popular culture widespread in his country.
Career
The artist’s earliest works exemplified this subject matter through his choice of technique; large, loud and very much present, he explored the various possibilities of embroidery, acrylic cake paintings and the incorporation of Swarovski crystals amongst many others. Each element in itself is a reference to both tradition and modernity in the artists native homeland; choosing local craftsmen to execute his own saccharine, morphine-like, paradises of colours, Farhad thus injects a sense of whimsy and indulgence.
In the early 2000s, Farhad was most readily associated with his paintings of jars, which are decorated with traditional Iranian sayings and poetic verse, written in Persian calligraphy.
These monumental containers have been described as receptacles of life, memory and desire, and reflect his fascination with archaeology.
Farhad Moshiri’s ‘I will have no more wishes if you come back to ME’
Rooted in a Pop dialect, pioneered by the likes of Warhol, Wesselmann and Rauschenberg, Farhad’s technique similarly takes up themes of contemporary consumerist and branding culture. He draws inspiration from the clash and modernity in 20th century Iran, a world where the paradox reigns.
Farhad Moshiri’s ‘Secret Garden’
His work is held in several public collections, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, the Farjam Collection, Dubai, and the British Museum, London.
He is represented by The Third Line gallery in Dubai, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong, Rodolphe Janssen in Brussels, and Thaddeus Ropac in Salzburg and London.
