Shohreh Mehran

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