Mehdi Ghadyanloo Iranian, b. 1981

Mehdi Ghadyanloo (b. 1981, Karaj, Iran) received his BA from the University of Tehran (2005) and his MA in Film Studies from Tarbiyat-e Modarres College. Known primarily for his gigantic trompe l'oeil-style murals in central Tehran, Ghadyanloo has worked with a variety of media, including printmaking, sculpture, and paintings with surreal and minimalistic themes. He currently lives and works in Frankfurt.

Through his works, Ghadyanloo opens a window to life, one informed by his personal experience, portraying the landscapes of his youth, growing up around the agricultural fields on the outskirts of Tehran, his memories of Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), and his living experience as a public artist. Although at times somber and even suggestive of a failed utopia, Ghadyanloo's work is about imagining a different landscape within the current state of affairs, of what remains glorious in gloomy times.

Answering to an open call from the Municipality of Tehran, he painted over 100 gigantic murals between 2004 and 2011. In 2016 he became the first Iranian artist since the Revolution of 1979 to be commissioned to complete a massive mural for the Rose Kennedy Greenway Project in Boston, US.