The Flight
2024
Acrylic on canvas over wood panel, acrylic on shaped wood panel, golden chain

The Red Carpet (A Massacre)
2024
Acrylic on canvas over wood panel, plexiglass, acrylic on shaped wood panel, leather cord

The Dichotomy
2024
Acrylic on canvas over wood panel, wood cutout, golden thread and poplar wood frame

My practice is intrinsically linked to my life experiences, yet opens a space to recast memories and process paradoxes of my childhood in Tehran, grounding my perspective as an Iranian now living in the US.

I was born soon after the Islamic Revolution and witnessed my country's transformation from a Western-friendly monarchy into a suppressive theocratic republic. My paintings describe the double life I led throughout my childhood and teenage years, adhering to Islamic Law in public (ex. being forced to wear a headscarf, to pray and recite the Quran at school), while still being able to think and act freely in private. 

My paintings weave multilingual narratives, combining traditional Islamic motifs (architecture, textiles and decorative objects, references to mythology and religious painting) with surrealist and contemporary visual elements. This blending of Eastern and Western imagery, past and present, religious and secular, reality and fantasy, is symbolic of the my deeply felt psychological tension.  

Compositionally the work draws influence from the tradition of Persian miniature painting; utilizing stacked perspective, cutaway views of architecture, bold color, rich detail, and frontal or three-quarter views of faces. I attempt to complicate the picture with contemporary messages and visual metaphors relating to themes such as freedom of expression, power dynamics between genders, suppression and identity. Another persistent theme is self-censorship, which is alluded to by imagery of veils, rope, and obscured faces. 

I’m not interested in perpetuating notions of cultural exoticism and portrayals of Iranian women as victims. Rather, my work is a vehicle for shifting power, validating personal storytelling and connecting to universal messages about human rights.

About the artist

Arghavan Khosravi’s studio practice mobilizes visual art as a vehicle for cultural transformation. She investigates the aesthetics of ancient Persian miniature paintings, which were originally used to illustrate folkloric texts. Typically, the only women they portray have a subservient or secondary role, lacking agency and social significance. Khosravi’s paintings take a conscious look at how the value system transmitted by that iconography continues to shape Iranian gender politics today. The most noticeable visual characteristic of Khosravi’s paintings is their multi-dimensionality. Constructed from a complex scaffolding of cut and painted wooden panels, they offer a constantly shifting perceptual experience. Visual motifs such as black plumes, rockets, and cages reference corrupted economic and political systems, while female bodies are often depicted as being shackled or with their mouths sewn shut.

Khosravi earned an MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design after completing the studio art program at Brandeis University. Khosravi previously earned a BFA in Graphic Design from Tehran Azad University and an MFA in Illustration from the University of Tehran. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally in solo exhibitions at M+B Gallery, Los Angeles; Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA; Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY; Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; Koenig Gallery, Berlin; Stems Gallery, Brussels; Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL; Carl Kostyal, London, UK; among others. Recent group exhibitions include Uncombed, Unforeseen, Unconstrained, an official collateral exhibition of the 59th Venice Biennale; Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan, CH; Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL; Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI; Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA, among others. Khosravi’s work is in the collections of the Rose Art Museum; The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum; Currier Museum of Art; Newport Art Museum; and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. She is a recipient of many awards including the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Painters & Sculptors Grant and the Walter Feldman Fellowship.