MAHSHID MOOCHANI

Mahshid Moochani is an Iranian surrealist painter with a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communication and a Master’s degree in Fine Arts. Since 2004 she has directed her professional art career through international solo and group exhibitions, showing her work in prestigious fairs and galleries across Turkey, the United Kingdom, France, and Iran, and drawing the attention of art critics and collectors along the way.

Her art works as an elegant bridge between imagination and reality – a world where the human, the natural, and the subconscious meet in poetic dialogue. In 2020 she established her own studio in Istanbul, stepping into a new creative period in which recurring figures – rhinoceroses, elephants, mermaids – move between strength and gentleness, translating her ideas, dreams, and inner experience into a universal language of color and form. Every work reflects a deep search for meaning, beauty, and inner peace.

Artist Statement — Inner Peace, the Essence of Existence

“I believe that beneath the world’s visible chaos lies a deep and lasting order. True peace is not found by fleeing the noise around us; it begins within, once a person learns to listen to their own silence and notice the harmony already present in the depths of their being.

I don’t build these paintings as a place of escape, and I don’t want the viewer to remain a spectator standing outside my dreams. I invite them into the work, to bear witness there for themselves.

Rhinoceroses, balloons, clowns, musicians, and hybrid creatures move between power and grace, carrying fragments of humanity’s memory and forgotten dreams toward a light that doesn’t descend from the sky but rises from within.

For me, painting is a mirror held up to inner life. It offers no definite answer — only a moment of realization. Peace is not the destination of the journey; it is the silent source from which the nature of existence, and beauty itself, are born.”

Personal website: mahshidmoochani.com

MAHSHID MOOCHANI

SELECTED ART ACTIVITIES & EXHIBITIONS

2026
WITH MY ROOTS Bienali’nin 6. edisyonu – Capital Art Gallery – Mall Galleries, London
Group Exhibition, Istanbul, Turkiye – GALA Gallery
Art Ankara International Contemporary Art Fair, Ankara, Turkiye – represented by GALA Gallery

2025
Solo Exhibition, Istanbul, Turkiye – GALA Gallery

2024
IAAF 2024 (Istanbul Art & Antiques Fair), Istanbul, Turkiye – Imza Art Gallery
ARTCONTACT Istanbul Art Fair, Istanbul, Turkiye – Galeri 7 Art
Izmir Art Fair, Izmir, Turkiye – Galeri L.U’Art Cihangir
Solo Exhibition, Istanbul, Turkiye – Utopia Art Gallery
Group Exhibition, Istanbul, Turkiye – Next Pro Gallery

2023
Contemporary Art Fair, Paris, France – City Art Center

2021
Affordable Art Fair, London, United Kingdom – Capital Art London Gallery

2020
Group Exhibition, Izadshahr, Iran – Didi Gallery

2018
Group Exhibition, Motelghu, Iran – Asurik Gallery
Selected by Galleries, Tehran, Iran – Fajr Festival, Saba Gallery (Academy of Arts)
Solo Exhibition, Motelghu, Iran – Asurik Gallery (Yalman)

2017
Affordable Art Fair, London, United Kingdom – Capital Art London Gallery
Group Exhibition, Tehran, Iran – Shis Gallery (The Spiritual Dawn of the Year)
Group Exhibition, Izadshahr, Iran – Did Gallery

2016
Group Exhibition in Support of Kermanshah Earthquake Victims, Tehran, Iran – Mojdeh Gallery

2014
Solo Exhibition, Tehran, Iran – Saba Gallery (Academy of Arts)
Group Exhibition, Isfahan, Iran – International City Art Center
Group Exhibition, Tehran, Iran – Iran Art Gallery

2013
Solo Exhibition, Tehran, Iran – Respina, Sheys Gallery
Group Exhibition, Tehran, Iran – Iran Art Gallery
Solo Exhibition (Nomad Theme), Tehran, Iran – Iran Art Gallery

2012
“Water” Solo Exhibition, Tehran, Iran – Farahani Private Gallery

2011
“Self” Solo Exhibition, Tehran, Iran – Estekanchi Private Gallery

2010
5th Place Award, National Student Exhibition, Tehran, Iran

2008
Solo Exhibition, Arak, Iran – Mandegar Gallery (Gabbeh Series)

2007
Group Exhibition, Tehran, Iran – Islamic Azad University (White Canvas)

2005
National Handicrafts Exhibition, Arak, Iran

2004
“Espinas” Solo Exhibition, Arak, Iran – Mehr Museum

EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts – Islamic Azad University, Tehran
Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Communication – Islamic Azad University, Arak

Read more: Why the Sea in Mahshid Moochani’s New Collection Isn’t a Place — an essay on her 2026 collection The Nobles of the Inner Sea.