Almine Rech Gallery

06-02-2023: www.alminerech.com/artists/6828-mehdi-ghadyanloo

Mehdi Ghadyanloo

  • , The Light Catcher, 2021
    Oil and acrylic on canvas
    180 x 140 cm
    70 7/8 x 55 1/8 in
  • , The Dancing Bride, 2020-2021
    Oil and acrylic on canvas
    235 x 130 cm
    92 1/2 x 51 1/8 in
  • , The Lost Paradise, 2020
    Acrylic on canvas
    200 x 200 cm
    78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in
  • , The Last Soldier, 2020
    Oil on canvas
    190 x 100 cm
    74 3/4 x 39 3/8 in
  • , The State of Light, 2020
    Oil on canvas
    190 x 100 cm
    74 3/4 x 39 3/8 in
  • , It Began On The Stairs, 2019-2020
    Oil on canvas
    120 x 120 cm
    47 1/4 x 47 1/4 in
  • , Sleeping Beauty, 2020
    Watercolor on paper
    57 x 42 x 3.5 cm (framed)
    22 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 1 3/8 in
    40 x 25 cm (unframed)
    15 3/4 x 9 7/8 in
  • , The Green Magic On The Wall, 2021
    Oil and acylic on canvas
    120 x 120 cm
    47 1/2 x 47 1/2 in
  • , The Great Circle, 2021
    Acrylic on canvas
    200 x 100 cm
    78 1/2 x 39 1/2 in
  • , A Slide From The Silk Road, 2020
    Watercolor on paper
    57 x 38 x 2.5 cm (framed)
    22 1/2 x 15 x 1 in
    39.5 x 20.5 cm (unframed)

Born in Karaj, Iran in 1981, he graduated with a B.A. from Tehran University’s College of Fine Arts in 2005, and later earned an M.A. in film studies from Tehran’s Teachers College.

Mehdi Ghadyanloo began his career as a muralist in Tehran in the early 2000s, when, following a call for proposals by the city, he produced almost one thousand gigantic wall paintings, including dreamlike landscapes and science-fiction scenes.  

His work combines minimalist themes and a surrealist aesthetic in his paintings, using acrylic, oil, or watercolor. He uses the trompe l’œil technique of his murals to compose his paintings that take on the shape of square boxes with dreamlike imagery and hyperrealistic technique. Each of his works reveals his brilliant ability to trick our eyes and our perception of reality. Their architectural appearance reflects the artist’s investigation into designing and representing space on the canvas.

Shadow and light overlap and challenge each other endlessly in Ghadyanloo’s practice, and the symbolism of the movement from darkness to light is at the heart of his vision. All the elements that he depicts in his paintings — ladders, fences, holes in the ceiling — are methods of representing a way out, a kind of hope.

Mehdi Ghadyanloo is now based in Sarrebrücken, Germany and New York, US.

— Martha Kirszenbaum, independant curator and writer

Exhibitions

Selected press