Arghavan Khosravi

Khosravi’s studio practice mobilizes visual art as a vehicle for cultural transformation. Her recent works investigate the aesthetics of ancient Persian miniature paintings, which were originally used to illustrate folkloric texts. The landscapes of Persian miniatures are flattened, eliminating any sense of depth or perspective. Typically, the only women they portray have a subservient or secondary role, lacking agency and social significance. Khosravi’s paintings take a conscious look at how the value system transmitted by that iconography continues to shape Iranian gender politics today.

The most noticeable visual characteristic of Khosravi’s paintings is their multi-dimensionality. Constructed from a complex scaffolding of cut and painted wooden panels, they offer a constantly shifting perceptual experience. Visual motifs such as black plumes, rockets, and cages reference corrupted economic and political systems, while female bodies are often depicted as being shackled or with their mouths sewn shut. The introduction of contemporary figurative and symbolic iconographies that challenge misogynistic cultural architectures spotlights the ongoing international fight for gender equality. Despite referencing specific Persian miniature paintings from history, their architectural presence and content makes clear that Khosravi’s paintings are intended to subvert the visual tradition to which they belong.

Born in Iran shortly after its 1979 Revolution, Khosravi was raised in a contradictory culture where one repressive regime—an ancient monarchy—was overthrown and replaced by an even more repressive theocracy. Despite public adherence to the authoritarian political culture, however, many Iranians are looser and freer in their habits and beliefs when in private.

Symbolism, metaphor, and abstraction have become essential parts of cultural expression within contemporary Iran’s dualistic social structure. Those same elements are also at the heart of Khosravi’s work. Like the ancient Persian miniatures they emulate, Khosravi’s paintings operate on multiple levels—intellectual, sensual, and emotional. They simultaneously critique and weaponize a particular type of authoritarian thinking: that which supposes art is frivolous and decorative, yet knows it has the power to communicate and affect social expectations and desires.