Reyhaneh Afzalian

Reyhaneh Afzalian was born in Tehran in 1988. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Painting from the Faculty of Art and Architecture at Azad University, Tehran Central Branch. She has held two solo exhibitions and participated in more than 15 group exhibitions both domestically and internationally. Afzalian's innovation is particularly evident in her prints, where she utilizes materials such as soil and plants. This approach, which departs from representation and places natural materials at the core of artistic creation, is of great significance: for her, the artistic process is not about transforming nature into culture, but rather the fundamental of the work is the nature itself, the artist's life within nature, and their encounter with it. Afzalian’s imagination is more connected to the earth than any other element, it is worth mentioning that according to Gaston Bachelard, the French philosopher of imagination and pioneer of thematic criticism, among the four elements of water, wind, fire, and earth, one element appears with a higher frequency among artists, writers, and poets. It's important to note that when we talk about these elements, we're not just referring to their literal representation. Rather, these elements create a semantic network that reflects the artist's relationship with that element. Over time, Afzalian's works have created a network suggesting that her imagination is deeply intertwined with and directly connected to the earth.

Sohrab Ahmadi