Biography

Mohammed Ehsai is a contemporary Iranian artist whose stylized work is characterized by a melding of Arabic calligraphy, graphic design, and Modernist abstraction. Two-tone compositions of conflated Arabic symbols and script, painted on large-scale canvases, form the backbone of Ehsai’s practice. Featuring twisting forms and delicate symmetrical design, his paintings offer a uniquely global vision of the 20th and 21st centuries. Born in Qazvin, Iran in 1939, he attended Tehran University in 1966 to study fine art and traditional calligraphy, before going on the attain a teaching position there in 1971. His culturally loaded work has received international attention, garnering commissions such as murals on the Abu Dhabi’s Iranian Embassy in the United Arab Emirates.