Born in 1988 in Tehran, Iran, Reihaneh Hosseini lives and works in Vienna.

Born and raised in Tehran, Hosseini studied philosophy before emigrating to Vienna in 2014, where she currently resides. Trained under Austrian abstract artists including Christian Schwarzwald and Gunter Damisch, Reihaneh soon returned to figurative painting, her favored style for reflecting on the world that surrounds her. As a storyteller, she is inspired by her friends and her everyday life experiences, yet she portrays them with a dysmorphic rendition, exaggerated proportions, grotesque, and distorted features, and an incongruous palette. Her strong sense of corporeality coupled with the absurdity of the scenes that she depicts reveal a psycho-emotional approach to life and painting. The figures that populate her works oscillate between beauty and ugliness, they have a cartoonish appearance that adds a glimpse of humor and playfulness to her compositions, yet they are imbued with philosophical subtleties. Hosseini’s paintings take us to a dreamlike world where each of her characters evokes our unconscious thoughts, our inner child, as well as our mental and social imagery.

Reihaneh Hosseini

Oil on canvas 
2022
During a recent cathartic trip to Hormoz, an Island in the Persian Gulf, Reihaneh Hosseini and her friends connected with the soil and nature of her motherland. Travelling in a tuk tuk car on the red sandy road, the weight of passengers had slowed their journey. This allowed them to fully reconnect with their surroundings, taking in all that nature has to offer. With her signature style, exaggerated and almost grotesque features, Hosseini once again brings together playfulness, humor and her philosophical approach to life.

Description

Location

With a certificate of authenticity signed by the Artist.

Authentication

Reihaneh Future Fairs_Full (1)

Reihaneh Future Fairs_Close1

Reihaneh Future Fairs_Close2

Reihaneh Future Fairs_InSitu

Painting

The Red Road

Colored Pencils on Paper 
2022
Sunset presents a figure in nature, though distracted by technology. The light reflected on the sea, acting as a halo to the figure, emanates from both sun and screen. The light 
sources illuminate the sitter's face and draw her in, each fighting for attention. With an ever humorous and critical approach, Hosseini is reminding viewers to look past technology, and succumb to the beauty and importance of nature.

Reihaneh_Sunset_InSitu2

Reihaneh_Sunset_Full (1)

Reihaneh_Sunset_Close2

Reihaneh_Sunset_Close

Drawing

Sunset

Colored Pencils on Paper 
2022
A preliminary drawing to the larger painting, this work encapsulates the artist's recent cathartic trip to Hormoz, an Island in the Persian Gulf. Hosseini found inspiration in her homeland's nature and through liberating human interactions. Leaning towards fully embracing her past, but also her female body, Hosseini thoughtfully questions the values she was taught and those she rejected, and freely expresses her own identity.

Reihaneh-Hosseini_Present in the moment drawing_InSitu

Reihaneh-Hosseini_Present in the moment drawing_Full (1)

Reihaneh-Hosseini_Present in the moment drawing_Close2

Reihaneh-Hosseini_Present in the moment drawing_Close

Present in the Moment

Oil on Canvas 
2022
Brought up in a conversative and religious family, Hosseini for years denied the trauma that she experienced as a result of her upbringing. During a recent cathartic trip to Hormoz, an Island in the Persian Gulf, Hosseini found inspiration in her homeland's nature and through liberating human interactions. From this trip was born a new series of works, of which Present in the Moment is a seminal example. Now leaning towards fully embracing her past, but also her female body, Hosseini thoughtfully questions the values she was taught and those she rejected, and freely expresses her own identity. Painting like self-therapy has helped her deal with past traumas, as she tackles themes around her personal bodily expression, like a metaphor for the liberation from shame, embarassment, guilt, social restrictions and chastity that had been imposed on women for centuries and on herself, for years. Looking closer at the composition, one is drawn to the fly on the man's face. As we pay attention, we see the reflection of the painter herself, through the man's pupil, alike an invitation to fully appreciate the present moment and freeze it forever in our memory.

We Are Watching

Reihaneh Hosseini

Also by Reihaneh Hosseini

The Red Road

Sunset

Present in the Moment

Present in the Moment

Untitled

Untitled

Five Heads

Goldfinger

Self-Portrait