Iranian Art

Iranian Art: Shadi Ghadirian - Photographer Shadi Ghadirian, 36, lives and works in Tehran. Her work has been exhibited in many places, including solo shows at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California (2008); Photography Festival of Istanbul, Turkey (2007); Gallery B21, Dubai (2007); Al Maamal Foundation, East Jerusalem, Palestine (2006); Villa Moda, Kuwait (2002); Silk Road Gallery, Tehran (2002); Golestan Gallery, Tehran (1999).

Iranian Art: Bita Ghezelayagh - Bita Ghezelayagh, 44, started working in the traditional Iranian craft of felt-making in 2003 and had her first solo exhibition at the House of Artists (“Khane Honarmandan”) in Tehran in 2008. She has also been exhibited throughout Europe. In 1984, at the height of the Iran-Iraq war, Ghezelayagh left for Paris to study architecture at Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris La Villette. She returned to Tehran in 1994, where she worked in building restoration for the Association of Iranian Calligraphers in Tehran (“Anjomane Khoshnevissan”). She also served as the art director for three notable Iranian films, including “The Pear Tree” (“Derakhte Golabi”) by Dariush Mehrjui.

Iranian Art: Mohamed Ehsai - Mohamed Ehsai, 71, is a master calligrapher who lives and works in Iran. His works have been shown worldwide, and he is now the only artist-calligrapher still commissioned by private patrons from across the Arab world. He has many supporters in Iran, where he leads several art institutions and calligraphy studios.

Iranian Art: "Termeh" - This 2009 piece is titled "Our God Is Great," the work of a young artist who goes by the nickname of "Termeh." Iranian art critic Hamid Dabashi says the Green Movement -- an opposition movement that emerged after the country's disputed election last June -- "has been extremely conducive to her [Termeh's] creative imagination." Her work, he says, has become "definitive" to the movement.

Iranian Art: Monir Farmanfarmaian - Multi-media artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, 87, was born in Qazvin, Iran, and spent many years in America before returning to live and work in Tehran. She worked as a commercial artist and designer in New York for 10 years until she discovered the art of geometrical mirror mosaics during a 1957 visit to Iran. Her reputation grew in the 1970s, with major exhibitions in Paris and New York. She fled to New York after the Islamic revolution of 1979 and did not return to Iran until 2000. In recent years her work has been in great demand, with exhibitions and buyers from around the world.