Alireza Shojaian
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Alireza Shojaian | |
|---|---|
 Shojaian's PaykanArtCar | |
| Born | 1988 (age 37–38) Tehran, Iran |
| Other names | Ali Reza Shojaian |
| Education | Islamic Azad University |
| Known for | Painting |
| Works | Hamed Sinno et un de ses fréres, Sweet blasphemy series |
| Movement | Queer art |
| Website | www |
Alireza Shojaian (Persian: علیرضا شجاعيان; born 1988)[1] is an Iranian-born painter, visual artist and LGBTQ activist, based in France.
Shojaian was born in Tehran to a Muslim family; he began to draw at an early age. At the age of 16 he was exposed to nude art for the first time when he saw Velasquez' Venus at her Mirror in an art magazine that was obtained in the Iranian black market. Unlike all other bareskinned images and paintings in magazines circulating in Iran, the nude body of Venus was not covered over by censoring black ink. Shojaian's reproduction of Velasquez' work was his first canvas painting.[2] At the age of 23, Shojaian came out as gay to his university professor, who was sympathetic and encouraged him not to censor himself; her intervention enabled Shojaian to explore his sexual identity through his work and to document LGBT persons' experience in Iran.[2][3]
Shojaian obtained his bachelor's degree in fine arts and painting from the Islamic Azad University in 2014. He was not allowed to complete his master's degree on account of his having chosen Queer Art as the subject of his thesis and final project. Shojaian kept his work hidden throughout his university years and did not exhibit in Iran.[4][5][6][7][8]
Exile and Paris
The sanctions against Iran prevented Shojaian from moving to the United States and Europe; he met a Lebanese patron in Iran who encouraged him to move to Beirut. Shojaian settled in the more liberal Beirut in February 2017, whereupon he was able to develop his work and held two solo exhibitions in 2017 and 2018. Shojaian was invited by the French embassy in Lebanon to participate in a project for the Académie des beaux-arts, following which he moved to Paris.[4][5][6][7][8]
In 2019, after three years in exile living in Beirut, he was granted asylum in France.[9]
Sociopolitical activism
Shojaian depicts his subjects nude or semi-nude in intimate and vulnerable positions. He states that his work aims to fight societal prejudice against LGBT people while making space for non-heteronormative masculine identities.[2][10][11] Shojaian has stated that sexual identity is politicized in a number of countries, including Iran, where human bodies are censored and controlled, and sexual identity is scrutinized and politicized.[2] Shojaian did not feel safe in Iran, where un-closeted gay persons suffer from state-sponsored oppression and face execution.[2]
