Art Aware

Art Aware is a non-profit-making blog that monitors all that’s interesting in the world of contemporary art, literature and culture in Iran and in the Iranian worldwide diaspora. It is a review and commentary of new exhibitions, events and developments in art media in Iran and in the West. I am a working artist and also an academic art historian. Edited and compiled by Dr Aida Foroutan

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Wednesday, 11 June 2025

Andy Warhol in Iran

How Brent Askari came up with ‘Andy Warhol in Iran,’ now at Mosaic Theater The playwright talks about his thought-provoking, deliciously fu...

Thursday, 5 June 2025

Censorship into art:

why Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s subversive stories are getting the world’s attention A still from the film Offside (2006) by director Ja...

Thursday, 29 May 2025

Reading in Iran: Literature That Crosses Borders

Photo of Saless Bookstore, Tehran by Sepideh Nazaralizadeh. Courtesy World Literature Today by Poupeh Missaghi , Emad Mortazavi , Leili Ente...

Thursday, 22 May 2025

Freudian Typo

At the Hayward Gallery: A New Take on Empire and Childhood Lore with Freudian Typo Artists Ghazaleh Avarzamani and Ali Ahadi explore the ech...

Thursday, 15 May 2025

An alternative political reality

Nazanin Noori’s Acts of Witness At Auto Italia, London, the artist’s work interrogates Iran’s recent political history Nazanin Noori, ‘THE ...

Foreigner

Nahid Rachlin, Novelist Who Explored the Iranian Psyche, Dies at 85 One of the first Iranian novelists to write in English, she examined the...

Thursday, 8 May 2025

Verses of Life:

A Review of ‘Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution’, edited by Bänoo Zan and Cy Strom Courtesy Guernica Editions. by Daniel ...

Thursday, 1 May 2025

“Humour helps overcome the fear imposed by dictatorship”

Mana Neyestani , who lives in exile in France, is among Iran’s best-known political cartoonists. In this interview, he talks about freedom o...

Thursday, 24 April 2025

Artists of the Middle East

New book on Middle Eastern art Arab art expert Saeb Eigner explores the work of more than 250 Modern and contemporary artists spanning dive...

Thursday, 17 April 2025

“O Chimera O Chimera” explores gender and transformation in Iran

The Mine is presenting O Chimera O Chimera, Feathers Whisper, Talons gleam, Mortal Flesh And Mythic scheme a solo presentation by Bita Fayya...

Friday, 11 April 2025

Between Shadow and Light

Yosra Mojtahedi (b. 1986) is a Tehran-born artist based in France who explores various fields at the intersection of art, science, and tech...

Thursday, 3 April 2025

“I am enough and whole as I am”:

Bea Dero casts hybridity onto the streets of London Bound by Two Homes blends Iranian cultural iconography with quintessentially British sp...

Wednesday, 19 March 2025

“Song of the North”

Bringing a Persian Epic to the World, With Help From 483 Puppets Hamid Rahmanian has made it his life’s work to share the richness of Irania...

Thursday, 13 March 2025

A Review on "The Persians" – women on the edge

5 Iranian Women are at the Centre of New Fiction Release, The Persians This multigenerational saga of an Iranian family fleeing to the US du...

Wednesday, 5 March 2025

The Artistic Journey of an Iranian Designer

A New Book Shares the Artistic Odyssey of Iranian Designer Farshid Mesghali Man & Lion (sculpture), 2006. © Farshid Mesghali; Courtesy...

Thursday, 27 February 2025

Filmed underground and in secret:

The story behind this 'banned' Oscar-nominated film Acclaimed director Mohammad Rasoulof filmed The Seed of The Sacred Fig in defian...

‘Embracing imperfection is key to artistic evolution’:

An interview with Iranian artist Sadegh Adham ‘These works invite humanity on an aesthetic journey, free from political and social biases’ S...

The Barbican as muse:

Composer Shiva Feshareki on bringing the brutalist icon to life through music For the last two years, British-Iranian experimental composer ...

Filmmaking as Rebellion:

An Interview with Nahid Hassanzadeh Another Time (2016), Directed by Nahid Hassanzadeh. Image courtesy of Visions of Iran: Iranian Film Fe...

Thursday, 20 February 2025

“I am an Actress, Where is my Country?”

A Seattle actor explores what it means to be an artist in exile Julia Rahmanzaei’s student project at the University of Washington, called “...

Friday, 14 February 2025

A Review on "Maximal Miniatures: Contemporary Art from Iran"

The artists twisting Persian masterpieces with stunning color With dreamlike imagery and bold patterns, contemporary Iranian artists have re...

Thursday, 30 January 2025

Why Reading Lolita in Tehran Holds Up

A new film vindicates Azar Nafisi’s humane literary ethos. © Photographer: Sasan/AFP/Getty Images. Via MSN by Arash Azizi , The Atlantic Th...

Friday, 22 November 2024

Iranian artist redefines calligraphy through tradition and innovation

An Interview Korosh Ghazimorad’s work embodies a unique synergy of historical reverence and innovative spirit Korosh Ghazimorad, ‘Breath...

Thursday, 7 November 2024

Ali Banisadr’s Fractious Paintings Are a Reflection of Our Turbulent Times

Artnet spoke to the Iran-born artist ahead of his first solo show in Asia at Perrotin Shanghai. The Fortune Teller , 2024. Courtesy of the a...

Leila Zelli foregrounds Iranian women’s protest movement at the Toronto Biennial

The artist’s videos and installations reinterpret acts of resistance staged in the streets and on social media Leila Zelli, Un chant peut tr...

Friday, 25 October 2024

Maryam Tafakory’s Haunted Iranian Cinema

Maryam Tafakory, راز دل Razeh-del (still), 2024, DCP 2K, colour, 28 min. Courtesy the artist and ArtReview. by Gelare Khoshgozaran , ArtRe...

Monday, 21 October 2024

Iranian Women Exhibiting Animated Art

Common misconceptions about Iran have prompted two curators to start their new exhibition ‘ Iranian Women in Animation ’ in Museum Arnhem....

Friday, 11 October 2024

Drawing Freedom:

Marjane Satrapi and The Voices of Revolution Through Art and Storytelling Courtesy Center For Iranian Diaspora Studies. by Bahar Momeni, ...

Thursday, 3 October 2024

‘Everything can just be what it is’:

The liberated art of Nairy Baghramian The Iran-born sculptor’s colourful new London show continues her practice of playing with convention a...

Thursday, 19 September 2024

Report Details Persistent Persecution of Iranian Artists

Courtesy Artistic Freedom Initiative DOWLOAD THE REPORT HERE by Anna Lentchner, ArtAsiaPacific A new 100-page report by the American advoca...

Thursday, 5 September 2024

Mirza Hamid, the ‘Banksy of Iran’

Image courtesy of UP MAG. by Maura Rosner, UP MAG Within the city of Tehran, there is an anonymous street artist The Tehran-based Street...

Friday, 30 August 2024

Tehrangeles

Tehrangeles by Porochista Khakpour New York. Pantheon Books. 2024. 308 pages. Interview by Basmah Sakrani, CRAFT In a writing workshop dur...

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Biography

Dr Aida Foroutan: Aida Foroutan was trained as a painter and graduated with a BSc in Industrial Design from the Alzahra University of Tehran. She relocated to Sweden in 2000, where she worked in theatre and museum curation and exhibited her paintings in Sweden and Germany. A book of her poetry, Forbidden Peace, was published in Stockholm in 2003. She moved to the UK in 2007 to do her Masters degree in Theatre Studies at the University of Manchester, then a PhD there (2008-12) in Art History, entitled ‘The Reception of Surrealism in Iranian Art and Literature’. She has published a number of scholarly articles for peer-reviewed academic journals and one for a Festschrift. Before the pandemic, she convened a successful international conference ‘Modern Iranian Art and Architecture in the Shadow of the Classical Persian Past’ at the John Rylands Library, Deansgate, Manchester. She currently teaches Persian at the University of Manchester.

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