Mostafa Sarabi

Mostafa Sarabi’s paintings exist between reality and fantasy, weaving together distorted perspectives, symbolic motifs, and maze-like patterns. His works are inhabited by recurring figures—family members, footballers, and mythical creatures—emerging from memory and dreamscapes. Persian legends intertwine with surreal landscapes where forests, suns, and moons obscure or transform his human subjects, often veiling their faces behind branches or turning them away from the viewer. Animals take on mystical roles, like a lion embodying his father or a luminous white horse standing amid blood-red trees. Sarabi’s world is both mysterious and deeply personal, a space where history, dreams, and nature collide.

Mostafa Sarabi (b. 1983, Kermanshah, Iran) lives and works in Tehran. He holds an MA in Painting from Shahed University, Iran. Recent solo exhibitions include Blanc International Contemporary Art (Beijing, 2022); The Island Club (Cyprus, 2021); Balice Hertling (Paris, 2020); and multiple shows at Delgosha Gallery (Tehran, 2020, 2018, 2017) and Atashzad Gallery (Tehran, 2009). His work has also featured in group exhibitions at Passerelle Centre d’Art Contemporain (Brest, 2020); Peres Projects Gallery (Berlin, 2020); Giardino Segreto (Milan, 2019); Delgosha Gallery (Tehran, 2019, 2018); Shirin Gallery (Tehran, 2011); and the 5th Visual Art Experimental Festival Youth Art (Tehran, 2010).