Arezoo Mirzaei

I am Arezoo Mirzaei. With a master degree in English Language Teaching, after graduating in 2008, I worked as a language teacher; while experimenting with painting in free times. Painting has always been my main interest and to me, everything in my life, nature, people, teaching, taking care of children, has been inspiration for painting. Considering my passion for art, I decided to change my career path. As an artist, my aspiration was creating professional paintings and participating in international art events. To build a satisfying and successful career, from 2012, I started to learn realistic painting in a local academy of art. As a determined artist, I am pursuing my career as a painter and painting tutor since 2017.

I have exhibited both nationally and internationally and participated in several art events. The exhibitions are: Atashzad Art Gallery-Tehran-2020; Saba Art Gallery-Tehran-2021; Mina Art Gallery-Tehran-2021; and World Art Dubai-2022.   

The contemporary artists I have been influenced by were Morteza Katoozian, the best realistic painter of Iran, and also Iman Maleki, the Iranian winner of "The William Bouguereau Award " and "The Chairman's Choice Award " in the second international ARC salon competition.

I work primarily in oil and I am very fascinated with conceptual portrait and figurative. I personally believe that depth of a story behind an artwork makes it a creative and meaningful one that can be effectively associated with; that’s the reason I really admire the expressive art works and soulful portraits evoking viewers’ emotions.

In my works, I attempt to portray the thoughts I’m mostly struggling with or the emotions everybody, including myself, may have experienced. Irony and paradox are two desirable features in my works. I believe that paradoxical phases of emotions or subjects characterized by irony make an art piece more attractive and expressive.

Creation, in my opinion, is another crucial thing in art. When painting, I may spontaneously decide to change the colors, features, or background toward my imaginations and thoughts in head. Then, the final result is usually unpredictable. I let my work, itself, lead me to a desired result and this is what I most love about paining. With no creation, emotion, implicit messages, or criticism, I prefer to only observe the nature instead of painting it. Everything around an artist can be inspiring enough to recreate, the only necessary thing is having an insight.  

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 16^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.