Mahroo Asghari - An inspiring and promising young artist

Tehran is very hot these days and whenever there is a gentle breeze it feels like a message from heaven above to soothe our heated bodies and souls. In our busy lives we do not get to visit some of our favorite galleries as often as we would like, but once in a while, despite the lack of time, traffic and heat we get to one of them during the week, since not all galleries are open on Fridays which is our normal gallery outing day.

Mahroo Asghari's recent exhibition at the Elahe gallery was a delight to go to as, unlike some of the exhibitions one comes across these days in Tehran, it was most inspiring. Mahroo Asghari's paintings were most striking and forceful, even if not enchanting, they were very bold and strong.

Mahroo is an artist who knows and successfully implements the technical aspect of painting as well as having a sure and precise direction and ability to express the emotions of the work.

We went there on the opening night and the artist was there for me to meet. I found Mahroo very strong, in control and an earnest young lady. She told me that she has been painting since she was 13, and this became a serious endeavor when she started to study painting professionally at art school. She has been lucky to have had two of Iran's best teachers, Mr Amin-Nazar and Berouz Moslemian at Azad University.

She had used a lot of the color black for all of her works on display. When I asked her why, she told me that everything has a place and "I like the ambiguity of black". She also said that she likes classical music, does not lead a very sociable life, and likes to hike and swim whenever she can. She works mostly at night in her private studio. She very much likes watching movies and is fond of David Lynch's films; when I asked why, she said because they make you think and also because they represent post-modernism. Mahroo has had four previous solo exhibitions in Tehran.

Her work heralds a very promising career for this young lady and I shall look forward to see her future achievements in exhibiting her talent. Here we have a few samples of this young artist for you to judge for yourself.