BIJAN RAFATY

Bijan Rafaty was born in Tehran, Iran, where he received his formal education up to be a B.A in economics and political science. He moved to the U.S.A. for the completion of his studies where he received M.ED., M.A. and PhD in economics. He worked in places like the Center for Advanced Studies in Population and Energy and International Monetary Fund and taught part-time at Howard University. 

During his career, Rafati has gone through different periods, “Memory series”, “Migration, “City series”, “Cover up series” and “In Plato’s cave series”, some of the most valuable periods of his career. In these works, there is a tangible sense of today’s ideas, beliefs and concepts. What is clearly reflected in Rafaty’s work is whether one decides to struggle out of desperation or act heroically, and maybe lose at times. As an artist, he is considered a self-taught one and his trajectory in the art may be considered more as a spiral than a straight line. He is a multi-media artist who for the past twenty-five years has put together fifteen solo shows and participated in almost thirty group and private exhibitions. His work has been kept in private collections in the U.S.A, UK, France, Germany, Netherland, Japan, Brazil, Uruguay and Iran.

Bijan Rafaty is among those painters whose awareness of their surroundings makes them a part of that “environment”; painters who try to decipher the nuances and meanings of that environment, and to show the threats, adventures, and ambiguities of life in that environment. They try to understand the realities and pretences of peoples’ lives from the past to the present, and to demonstrate how people play a role in certain events and affect them directly, and how change –both in the sense of transforming them and their environment- and fear of uncertainty and confusion make them struggle and react to the horror of the situation. 

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Solo Shows:

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1990 - Sepehri gallery “Mana”

1991 - Sepehri gallery 

1992 - Sepehri gallery

1993 - Seyhoon gallery

1994 - Artist’s studio Tehran “Migration”

1995 - The consulate of the Royal Netherlands Embassy, Tehran

1995 - Artist’s studio Tehran “City”

1996 - Artist’s studio Tehran “Cover up”,

1998 - Artist’s studio Tehran “In Plato’s cave”

1999 - Barg gallery Stone

2000 - Sepehri gallery

2001 - Hourian fine arts gallery, San Francisco

2002 - Seyhoon gallery “Colosseum” 2004 - Seyhoon gallery “Loop” 

2006 - Artist’s studio Tehran “A bushman’s perspective”

2009 - Artist’s studio Tehran

2013 - Aun Gallery, Icaru Dream

2013 - Ariana Art Gallery, In Search of Last Time

Group Shows:

2000 - Iranian Artist House, Tehran

2001 - Zarabi Art Gallery, Tehran

2001 - Assar Art Gallery, Tehran

2001 - Site-specific installation, Tehran

2004 - Atashzab Art Gallery, Tehran

2005 - Mahjoobi Art Gallery, Tehran

2007 - Iranian Heritage Foundation, London, UK

2008 - Henna Art Gallery, Tehran

2009 - Art Centre, Tehran

2013 Ariana Art Gallery