Farrokh Mahdavi Iranian, b. 1970

Farrokh Mahdavi (b. 1970, Tehran, Iran) taught himself painting and cultivated his passion for the art to follow it later with notable painters. A prolific painter, he lives and works in Tehran.

Canvases of Farrokh Mahdavi can be distinguished through the use of a unique pinkish hues. His technique aims to reach "a more material meaning" by "omitting toxins", defamiliarizing the well-known facial elements, and crossing over "cliché definitions". His works emphasize the fleshy-pink color, a color that covers his figures and allows the rendering of "a more general depiction of human beings devoid of stereotypes of gender and of race". The faces in Mahdavi’s work are reduced to such features as the eyes or the lips, and the rest are covered by thick layers of pink paint, hinting at the emotional world of his characters. He tries to specify forms and conditions without directly depicting anything additional to that as he believes it deviates from the main point.

Farrokh Mahdavi exhibitions: Frieze Cork Street (London, 2022) | FIAC (Paris, 2021) | "Seemingly Playful" (Yavuz Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2021) | "The Shaving" (Electic Room, Tehran, 2017) | "The Big Shave" (Dastan's Basement, Tehran, 2016) | "City Prince/sses" (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2019) | the 56th Venice Biennale (2015).