About

Mohammad Tabatabai who often referred to as a surrealist painter was born in 1987 in Tehran, IRAN. He started his art education from Tehran Fine Arts Academy and won the first prize for painting in the country’s fine arts competition. Then he completed a Bachelor of sculpture at the Tehran University of Art in 2011. His first solo exhibition”Dog Motion” was held in Tehran’s Day Gallery in 2011. In the continuation of his artistic career, Tabatabai has exhibited consistently for the past eleven years both nationally and internationally and has collaborated with galleries such as Shirin in the form of several solo exhibitions, he has also participated in group exhibitions particularly in Tehran (such as Art Fair and New Generation’s Selected Case), London and Malaysia. Many classify Tabatabai’s paintings as surrealist art. But this conclusion is not very accurate and does not match the definitions of surreal art and its manifesto. Although his paintings follow the objective logic of the real world, this quality is not necessarily synonymous with being surreal. Perhaps the term “magical realism” is a more or less accurate description for these paintings. This is a point that has also been raised about painters such as Salvador Dali. Tabatabai’s paintings are based on defamiliarizing everyday human perception and creating amazing images. Creating contradictions in the logics of the objective world, such as removing the gravity of the earth, suspending forms in space, interfering with the coexistence of human body parts, placing elements in unexpected places, etc. are among the measures that challenge the usual perception of the audience. What distinguishes Tabatabai’s paintings from this movement is the way he creates spaces and colors. The first appearance of Tabatabai’s works in auctions dates back to April 2013, Tehran auction. Until 2022, his works have appeared 6 times in domestic and foreign auctions. His most expensive work until 2022 is a painting titled “Reflection Leap.”