Ramin Haerizadeh

“I was free in treating the porcelain in my unconventional ways, which felt like stirring chaos within a well organized traditional system. I was hacking and engraving on Meissen Porcelain! Hacking and roughhandling the material which I knew had been traditionally treated gently and respectfully felt like vandalism. And I was the vandal, making my obscene graffiti marks on this prestigious exquisite porcelains.”

Rokni & Ramin Haerizadeh, born in the Iranian capital Teheran in 1978 and 1975 respectively, live and work in exile in Dubai and are two of the internationally most celebrated shooting stars amongst painters from the Middle East - except in Iran itself. Rokni achieved fame with expressive large-format paintings in which he manages to convey figures and symbols from classical Persian prose and poetry in inimitable fashion and combine them with contemporary social events in Iran.

Ramin first became known for his innovative use of photographic techniques, often combined with painted works on canvas, with which he created a peculiar Alice-in-Wonderland world. His more recent work adopts a Monty Python-type approach in viewing the western world from a satirical perspective that collides with the reality of the Islamic Republic in Iran.

w.t., 2010, Overglaze painting on Meissen Porcelain®