Mehdi Ghadyanloo will present his first solo museum exhibition at the Long Museum (West Bund) in Shanghai, China. The exhibition will be on view from May 18th to July 28th, showcasing 18 works by the artist, including 12 new paintings and works on paper.

Born in Karaj, Iran, in 1981, Mehdi Ghadyanloo now lives and works in Germany. After growing up near the agricultural fields in the suburbs of Tehran, Mehdi Ghadyanloo studied at Tehran University’s College of Fine Arts and graduated with a BA in 2005. Subsequently, he earned an MA in film studies from Tehran’s Teachers College (Tarbiyate Modarres).

Known primarily for his gigantic trompe l’oeil-style murals in central Tehran, Ghadyanloo also creates paintings, with surreal and minimalistic themes. He provides an autobiographical perspective, portraying the landscapes of his youth, his memories of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), and his life experience in the Islamic Republic. Although at times sombre and even suggestive of a failed utopia, Ghadyanloo’s work conveys hope that change can be affected, and it speaks with joy of what remains glorious in gloomy times.

Between 2004 and 2011, he painted over 100 gigantic murals throughout Iran’s capital, to elevate the visual quality of life in Tehran to bring hope and color to the grey, depressed city of Tehran. In 2016 he became the first Iranian artist to be commissioned in both Iran and the US since the revolution in 1979, when he completed a massive mural for the Rose Kennedy Greenway project in Boston, US.