Mehdi Farhadian’s paintings effectively integrate abstract and figurative features to create dreamlike, visually stunning landscapes and city views, inhabited by people and animals commonly engaged in enigmatic acts. His personal style fuses realistic, expressive and fictional narratives, providing a potent vehicle for his highly personal subject matters, which typically demonstrate his deep concern for Iranian contemporary history. This historical approach addresses political highlights and the everyday life experienced collectively. His characteristic iconography originates from sources such as the overflowing vegetation of the Khazar bank in Northern Iran, famous Iranian buildings, and recent historical figures. It is this orchestrated variety that makes up Farhadian’s entirely subjective and original imagery. His style of painting combines a great respect for details with a powerful handling of contrasting visual effects achieved by pouring and dripping paint. By combining abstract and expressive techniques, his meticulous skill and particular subject matter have saved him a distinctive place in Iranian contemporary painting. Mehdi Farhadian lives in an old, historically charged neighborhood in Tehran where he was born in 1980. He received his MA in painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran. Since 2010, he has taught painting and drawing at Elm o Farhang University, (Science and Culture), Tehran. Select exhibitions include ART CAPITAL (Comparison), Grand Palais, 2016, Paris (France); The Great Game, Iran Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia 2015, Venice (Italy); Magic of Persia, Royal College of Arts, 2011, London (UK); and Iran Inside Out, Chelsea Museum, 2009, New York.