Pantea Rahmani

Pantea Rahmani (Persian: پانته آ رحمانی‎‎), born 10 September 1971 in Tehran, is a contemporary Iranian artist, who is well known for her self-portraits.

Rahmani, born and raised in Iran, studied visual art at the Fine Department of the Art University of Tehran. In 1999 she graduated (BFA) and got her Diploma in Painting and Drawing. Inspired by the work of Balthus, Giacometti and Amedeo Modigliani, she started drawing self-portraits during her studies. In 1996 her work was part of a selected Group exhibition at the Kyoto University of Art and Design. After some solo exhibitions in 1999, at the Barg Gallery in Tehran, the European art scene took notice of her. In 2003 she took part in several group exhibitions at the Approaching Art Association in Pécs, Hungary and at the Léspace CROQU Árt in Brussels. One year later her drawings of Tehran were shown at the Csepel Gallery in Budapest. She reached the climax when her self-portraits were presented at the Museu da Água and the Palácio da Bolsa in Portugal 2005.

Rahmani working on the Tehran pictures at her atelier

After that she started producing pictures in a more Middle Eastern style. In 2009 her self-portraits 1–6 of the Exposed series were on exhibition at the Gallery b21 in Dubai, which is now called the Gallery Isabelle Van Den Enynde. Three years later, on the authority of Iranian art promoter and collector Ramin Salsali, she started painting two pictures of Tehran (both about 5 m long and 1,5 m high).

Rahmani often uses dark and acherontic shades of grey for her pictures. Her work illustrates a visual quest for the expression of space, shapes or chromatics. In a tension connecting fullness and vacuity, the absence of decors, the quasi-monochromic aspect of her pallet and the stiff attitude of the model, characterize her portraits. Beyond any representation restraining her practice to clichés or stereotypes inherent to her Iranian identity, the artist asserts herself through an intimate approach. With the representation of her own body on monumental canvases, Rahmani makes the observer discover oneself.

Both of her Tehran pictures and her "NO.7", will be shown at a solo exhibition called "The Seismic Sanctuary" at the Salsali Private Museum in Dubai, managed by Salsali and Collection Manager Alicia Hughens. Owner and founder of the SPM, Ramin Salsali created a team of Iranian artists, including photographer Ali Zanjani, director Kambiz Saffari and Salar Abdoh, which accompanied Rahmani during her work on the Tehran pictures and made a documentary of her project. The documentary is also part of the solo exhibition.