MOJTABA TAJIK

He was born in 1966, Tehran, Iran. Mojtaba Tajik is a self-taught artist who began his creative endeavours with photography. Later he was trained by the Iranian master painter Aydin Aghdashloo and went on to become a hyper-realist painter. He held his first solo exhibition in 1995 in Tehran’s prestigious Seyhoun Gallery.

Tajik uses his camera as his initial tool and instead of sketching his ideas; he photographs his subjects before using them to begin his paintings. His works are therefore the result of still life images that have gone beyond their ordinary context and have delicately been transformed into symbolic paintings. Although Tajik seemingly focuses on subjects that appeal to him aesthetically in everyday life, in his paintings, he tries to portray them beyond their outward and banal context in order to make them his own. 

Due to flexibility, and in order to achieve his desired colours, shadows and textures, Tajik uses acrylic paint as his main media. This allows him to create pure colours and the paint density, which he is looking for, and also to achieve the necessary rich surface texture and the correct light resolution effect. 

Tajik’s conceptual fascination work of 'Boxes’, has taken eleven years to be created, as his most well-known series. This series consists of a variety of subjects, including boxes containing tools, soda cans, bottles, coins, keys, nails, bowls, boxes, paper boats, shoes and suitcases. By merging the aesthetic of the objects with conceptual concerns, Tajik explores his own social and cultural milieu in the works, perhaps, his psychological engagement with concepts of order, framework and segregation.

His latest collection, as an extension of the Boxes Series, follows the same concept; but this time focuses on more intimate personal items. Unlike his Boxes, Tajik’s Billboard Series is a direct and brutal reference to the torn, dirty, rusted and abandoned city billboards around us, painted to point at our social existential dependencies and our engagements with matters of little significance in life, leaving behind signs of our greed in a quest for new indulgences. 

During his career as a painter, Tajik has held several solo exhibitions in Iran, the United States and Qatar, and has participated in many group exhibitions worldwide. Tajik’s works have been regularly presented in international art fairs. A book was published on his collection of works in 2007 entitled: Boxes, available at Assar Art Gallery. His works have also been included in a book by Lorena Kloosterboer entitled ‘Complete guide to painting in acrylic’.

​

Member of the Iranian Painters Society

Solo Shows:

2017 - Tan-Ha (Lonely/ Bodies), Assar Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran 

2016 - Dastan Basement, Tehran, Iran 

2016 - Sealed, Assar Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran 

2012 - New Collection, Assar Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2010 - Assar Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2009 - Nader Gallery, New York, USA 

2008 - Assar Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2006 - Assar Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2005 - Bissan Gallery, Doha, Qatar

2003 - Nader Gallery, New York, USA 

2001 - Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran, Iran 

1998 - Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran, Iran

1996 - Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran, Iran

1995 - Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran, Iran

Group Shows:

2017 - Third Generation, Ariana Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran 

2017 - Pardis Mellat Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2017 - Peace from the Bottom of My Art, Opera Gallery, London, UK 

2015 - Art International Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey

2013 - Contemporary Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey 

2011 - Contemporary Istanbul's side exhibit in collaboration with Assar Art Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey

2011 - Assar Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2010 - Sin Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2009 - Dar Al-Funoon Gallery, Kuwait City, Kuwait 

2007 - Iranian Artists’ Forum, Tehran, Iran

2007 - Silk Road Gallery, Tehran, Iran 

2007 - Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2006 - XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE

2006 - Assar Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2006 - Farmani Gallery, Los Angeles, USA 

2004 - Kavir Gallery, Rafsanjan, Iran

2003 - Al Bidda Gallery, Doha, Qatar

2003 - Sixth Painting Biennale, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran

2002 - Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2001 - Assar Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2000 - Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2000 - Fifth Painting Biennale, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran 

1999 - Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran, Iran 

1997 - Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran, Iran

1997 - Fourth Painting Biennale, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran 

1995 - Third Painting Biennale, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran