Mehrdad Jafari
b. 1984, Iran

Mehrdad Jafari earned a BA in Handcrafts from Shiraz University in 2008. Jafari's primarily macabre pictures depict the lack of reflection in humanity. Anthropomorphic animals consume themselves and others in frightening yet sensual compositions throughout his work. These collections of drawings and artifacts can be viewed as his diaries; everything Jafari experiences are transformed into an illustrated manner in which anthropomorphic beings play the primary parts, and at times the artist himself is featured.

To escape the sadness and failure of ordinary life, Jafari creates an imaginative world in which he is free to create without ever sacrificing the truth. Jafari is fascinated by society's quick consumption and the wastefulness that characterizes it. He sees poetry and possibilities in discarded objects and the memories they hold. Jafari reimagines notions, traditions, and existence through art, arriving at a new definition through examination and internalization.

Credentials

Over 15 regional group exhibitions
Media coverage

Series Statement

The series 'Faded Festival' consists of discarded multicolored paper garlands of parties and festivals of the revolution. These celebratory pieces of color and joy were confined in a basement of a home for thirty years. Dusty, desolate, faded, and ancient, they whisper in my ear, “we never had a true celebration on this land.”

Selected Exhibitions

2021 Birds, Group Exhibition, Soo Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2021 A Recycling of Shadows, Solo show, Soo Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2019 Persons, Hamras Art Space, Group Exhibition, Tehran, Iran
2019 Passport (Self-Portrait), Group Exhibition, Jaleh Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2018 1511, Group Exhibition, 4 Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2018 Self in Other Perception, Group Exhibition, Saye Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2016 No Man’s Art Pop-Up Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2015 Fearless, Total Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2015 Fearless, Aaran Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2015 Jealous, Dena Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2015 Angels, Saints and Co., Aaran Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2015 Cactus, Dena Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2014 The Dark Room, Mehrva Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2013 Hoom Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2013 Azad Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2013 7 Samar Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2013 Refuge, Mehrva Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2013 Advertising, Shiraz Cafe Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2009 (4-4), Behshahr, Mazandaran, Iran
2005 Zarif Art Gallery, Shiraz, Iran
2004 Mani Art Gallery, Shiraz, Iran

Mehrdad Jafari b. 1984, Iran

Mehrdad Jafari
b. 1984, Iran