Mohammad Ariyaei is a self-taught painter who has rejected the discipline over time, understood as something driving the artist to conform to the prevailing taste. He rarely leaves blank spaces in his works, a sign that he paints for himself and not for others. He inscribes Saadi’s and Hafez’s allusive and illuminating poems on the body of his figures, turning them into our audience judging us with a mysterious smile. He makes us rediscover ourselves in a new way through lines and colors, drawing them as if they were vital, as organs of our body. We can hardly interpret his figures as ethnic. His figures need to be discovered or revealed. Ariyaei engages the viewer in a new encounter with the recurring existence of the other: his works are windows into a parallel world, where people stand in opposite positions observing and analyzing each other, from the perspective of their principles and beliefs. The artist grew up with his grandmother, who was an exorcist, an element that can help us better understand his art.
