Reza Derakshani

Reza Derakshani is painter, poet, musician and performance artist, born in Sangsar, Iran in 1952. He graduated from the University of Tehran in 1976 and pursued his studies at the Pasadena School of Art in California. He now lives and works between Dubai, UAE and Austin, USA.

After experimenting with pure abstraction at the beginning of his artistic career in the 1980's whilst being associated with the Neo-expressionists, Derakshani devised his personal artistic style blending abstract and figurative elements from both Western and Eastern cultures, thereby creating an idiosyncratic oeuvre at the confluence of civilizations. In his work, the artist explores the natural world, as well as emotional states and themes of exile and alienation. He builds up the luminous, textured surfaces of his paintings with a base of roof tar, after which he applies layers of color and other materials such as gold, silver, enamel, and sand.

His work features in many public art collections including The British Museum, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art; The Russian Museum in St Petersburg, Russia and the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Germany. In 2016, Derakshani has had two major solo exhibitions at The State Russian Museum in St Petersburg, Russia and at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Germany.