b. 1963. Farhad Moshiri, an Iranian multi-disciplinary artist and curator lives and works in Teheran. From 1981 to 1984 he studied Art & Film at the California Institute of the Arts. Since then, his work concentrated on painting and mix-media, using them as a means to give voice to his critical and astute observations on present day culture in Iran. Farhad Moshiri's work ranges from the ironically conceptual to the candidly beautiful, often within one piece. He tackles themes ranging from Iranian urban everyday reality to the culture of consumerism and architecture in the post revolutionary period.
Blurring the lines between kitsch, art and craft his work includes painting, photography, sculpture and installations. Fine art, traditional craft and pop culture are all interwoven into ironic comments on the hybrids between traditional Iranian forms and those of the consumerist and globalized culture widespread in his home country. Questioning current cultural and political climate, Moshiri asks us to consider what it is that makes a work ethnic, traditional or even contemporary for that matter. Although his immediate point of departure is Iran, his art raises questions as to labeling tendencies at large.