Reza Derakshani, the celebrated painter, poet, musician and performance artist transmits a sense of joy, mystery and startling beauty through his work. Speaking to Arab News, he explained that while he ‘has a lot of love’ for his Iranian cultural heritage, he sees himself first and foremost as a citizen of the world.
“I like the challenge of being measured as an international artist,” he said.
This is natural considering his life journey to date which has seen him moving from his homeland of Iran to live and work for many years in the US, Europe and Gulf region.
Derakshani, born 1952 in Sangsar, had his first solo exhibition at the age of 19 at the renowned Ghandriz Art Gallery, and graduated from the University of Tehran in 1976.
He continued his studies at the Pasadena School of Art in California, and returned to Iran to teach at the University of Tehran and the School of Decorative Arts. He left Iran in 1983 following the Islamic Revolution and lived in New York for 16 years. He subsequently moved to Italy before returning again to Iran for seven years.
He now divides his time between Dubai, UAE and Austin, USA, where in parallel to his career within visual arts, he collaborated with legendary musicians such as John Densmore, the drummer of the Doors, releasing two critically acclaimed albums.
In a way, the wanderings of his adult life echo the patterns of his early life as a child living with his nomadic family in the mountains of North Eastern Iran. He has strong memories of scenes from his childhood that captured his imagination and fed his love of color.
“I remember fields full of wild flowers,” he said. He also recalled how out of necessity his mother used to craft objects for use inside of their traditional tent — including little clay sculptures for the children to play with.
“I still have vivid memories — those experiences stay with you forever. Sometimes when I play music, melodies come back into my head which take me back to my childhood,” he said.
He keeps an open mind about the land of his birth in this new era of the ‘nuclear deal’.
“I will wait and see what happens,” he said with the wariness of a person who has lived through many ups and downs and takes a long term view.
One of his paintings, called ‘Those Roots Drink Quietly’ depicting a fissure filled with ripe red pomegranates contained within cloying black tar was inspired by verses of Rumi, the 13th century Persian poet.
Another painting titled ‘Faith Blue’ shows a face covered in blue floral motifs often seen in Persian art.
His work Shirin and Khosrow draws inspiration from the famous tragic romance of the Sassanian King Khosrow II for the Armenian princess Shirin, by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi (1141–1209).
He chooses to focus on the moment where the lovers meet and fall in love.
He commented: “I have an optimistic outlook. I always celebrate life, even though I have experienced difficult times. Through art you can turn those moments into vibrant, energetic moments.”
The Hunting Series paintings have a dreamlike quality and capture many moods as indicated by their names — Sunset Hunting, Nocturnal Hunting, Blue Hunting and Spring Hunt, Hunting the Ecstasy. The artist layers an abstract landscape with the motif of horse riding hunters. The figures bring to mind the rich artistic traditions of Persian miniature painting and calligraphy.
Derakshani is known both in the Middle East and in the West as one of the most significant contemporary Iranian artists.
After experimenting with pure abstraction, he devised his personal artistic style blending abstract and figurative elements from both Western and Eastern cultures.
His work features in many public art collections including the British Museum, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. He has also performed as a musician in numerous museums and festivals such as the Brooklyn Museum and the Montreux Jazz Festival.
His career includes a variety of collaborations with renowned international musicians, poets and dancers including John Densmore of the Doors, Branford Marsalis, Robert Bly, Deepack Chopra and Madonna.
He recent exhibition at the Sophia Contemporary Gallery, London, showcased new works from a number of ongoing series, including the Hunting, Pomegranate and Garden Party series, as well as two large paintings from a new Calligraphy series, which have never previously been exhibited.
Sophia Contemporary, a new art gallery based in Mayfair, represents some of the most established contemporary artists from the Middle East and Iran working in a variety of media, including drawings, paintings, sculpture, video and photography. The Gallery aims to promote a new generation of emerging artists from the region with a view to providing them with a platform on the international stage. The gallery roster also includes emerging and established artists from Europe and the USA, promoting a creative dialogue between East and West.
From May 26 to July 25, 2016 a large retrospective of the artist’s work will be held in the Marble Palace of The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg surveying the artist’s career to date.
The exhibition will run alongside a solo exhibition of Robert Indiana’s work entitled ‘To the 50th Anniversary of Love’, also in the Marble Palace. Following on from this, the works will travel to Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz in South East Germany in the autumn.
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Reza Derakshani’s artworks awaken the senses
Reza Derakshani’s artworks awaken the senses
‘The Wild Within’ sees artists breathe new life into Mideast buildings
DUBAI: Lens-based artist Ryan Koopmans and digital artist Alice Wexell are staging a showcase at Dubai’s Leila Heller Gallery that breathes new life into regional buildings.
The series of digital artworks is part of the exhibition “The Wild Within,” featuring images of old structures in Beirut, Istanbul, and Abu Dhabi filled with wild flowers.
Two of the largest works, “Heartbeats” and “The Wish,” are displayed using Ventana, a microLED architectural display surface created by visual technology company Megapixel.
The former artwork depicts the entrance hall of Qasr Al-Watan, the UAE’s presidential palace in Abu Dhabi, while the latter reimagines the upper floors of the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental in Abu Dhabi.
“Each building we work with comes to us through a combination of research, travel, and intuition,” the artists told Arab News in a joint statement.
“We are drawn to structures that carry both emotional and historical resonance, often buildings that once embodied human ambition and now exist in a state of quiet transformation.”
Koopans and Wexell made sure to research the context of each building they choose to recreate, saying “an old villa in Jeddah or a former school in Sharjah each hold their own cultural memory, influencing everything from the lighting and atmosphere to the plants and flowers that we digitally sculpt and implement into the photographs.”
The hypnotic works depict the interior of buildings in the region, with digitally rendered flowers carpeting the floor in a bid to “(reimage) these spaces (and) explore the relationship between nature, place, and time, while celebrating each site as a unique work of architecture with its own spirit and story,” the artists said.
Koopmans is of dual Canadian and Dutch heritage, while Wexell is Swedish and based in Stockholm, so it is noteworthy that both artists chose to explore the Middle East for their latest project.
“In the Middle East especially, the architecture reflects a layered past that merges different styles and eras, while also expressing a sense of renewal and forward-looking energy, particularly in the region’s fantastic contemporary buildings. We are drawn to the symmetry, geometry and patterns that are found not only in nature itself, but in the architectural language of the region both past and present,” they said.
The series — featuring works such as “Adore You,” “Between Worlds,” and “Blossom of the Ancestors” — explores contrasts between the natural world and human-made forms, as well as the traditional and contemporary worlds.
“We are interested in how these elements coexist and merge into one another, creating a sense of hyperrealism that feels both familiar and imaginary. By merging photography with digital sculpture, the artworks question where the boundary lies between documentation and invention, and how technology can extend rather than replace our sense of the natural world.”
Although the scale of the artworks ensures they leave the viewer entranced, it did pose challenges, according to the artists.
“Presented at a large scale, every texture in these artworks becomes visible, which can be demanding but is also incredibly rewarding. The magnified detail allows the visceral and atmospheric layers of the pieces to come through with greater impact,” they said, adding that each piece took “many months” to create.
“Ultimately, we want our collectors to experience a sense of wonder and contemplation, as if they are standing inside a dream that feels both entirely real yet unreal.”
The exhibition runs until Jan. 15, 2026.
