IMAN RAAD

Iman Raad (b. 1979, Mashhad, Iran) is a Brooklyn-based visual artist, designer, and educator. He holds an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University, and is presently teaching at The Cooper Union School of Art.

Across his diverse work, Raad brings together a sweeping reimagining of traditional Persian painting amidst the interruption of images and narratives in the internet era. Oscillating between disparate areas of knowledge, Raad references a culture indexically rooted within his thoughts. Curiosity is given a place to breathe. Images are fractured or incomplete. Moments from different art histories are filtered into a language of comfort and contented longing, memories of a smell of a place far away; a repetition of imagery and color whose intention is to keep you in a disturbed reality.

In Raad's paintings, objects tumble and waver, provoked by swathes of restless birds. Deep tonal flourishes are augmented by a restless energy across his works–enhanced by a variety of techniques of depiction like the reverse painting on glass and the egg tempera. Through this prism of layers and colors, Raad has found a necessary platform to touch on both the complexities and beauty of cross cultural expression today.

Aside from painting, Raad is also an internationally acknowledged graphic designer–representing the contemporary Persian design and typography movement.

Iman Raad’s recent exhibitions include Queensland Art Gallery (A Third Language), Brisbane, Australia (2023), 58th Carnegie International at Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA (2022), British Museum (Reflections), London, UK (2021), Centro Cultural La Moneda (Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific), Santiago, Chile (2019), The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at QAGOMA, Brisbane, Australia (2018), Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (Standing Still, Lying Down, As If), Detroit, MI (2018) , and The Flag Art Foundation in New York (2018).

His solo exhibitions include Josh Lilley Gallery (As if None of Us Had Ever Been Here Before), London (2022), Sargent's Daughters Gallery (At the Earliest Ending of Winter), New York (2021), Sargent's Daughters Gallery (Tongue Tied), New York (2017), Dastan Gallery (Forty Drawings and So), Tehran (2016)