"Three years ago, I heard a voice from Iran: 'Woman, Life, Freedom.' For me, this slogan was more than a call from my homeland - it was a universal roar. It was a demand for the right to live, to free our bodies from control. It was not just about Iran but about humanity - about reclaiming life itself.” Forouz Zarei Berlin, 2025
John Marchant Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of work by Iranian artist Forouz Zarei.
Born in Tehran in 1984, and raised in the Iranian city of Abadan in the aftermath of the Iran Iraq war, Forouz Zarei studied Fine Art at Islamshahr Tehran University. She later moved to Berlin, where she currently resides with her partner and young family.
For her first solo exhibition in the UK, Forouz presents a collection of delicate and seemingly vulnerable, unframed paintings on paper, with red, blue, pinks and orange touches. We quickly realise that we are looking at gashes, wounds, barbed wire and faceless embryonic figures, hung up, tied down or pushed down by force, and that the lightness of that touch carries the sensitivity of an exposed nerve. These viscerally startling images are often accompanied by lines of Farsi poetry, that counteract and give space to our breathless reading of the paintings.
Forouz’ personal and political struggles living within - and as an exile from - a violent, oppressive, patriarchal society underpin the thematic concerns of her paintings and constructions. Her work exhibits a complicated duality - the silence and softness of touch in her hand against her stories of brutality, cruelty and complicity of the war machine, which we have all now been witness to.
These tremendously powerful and often upsetting paintings confront and expose the patriarchal, industrial war machine, and the misogynistic theocratic oppression so strongly felt in her home country. Sadly, these themes are universal and not contained to place or time, and Forouz’ work is for all people who struggle against forces that seek to confine them. "It is a form of resistance; an attempt to reclaim what has been mine; I speak of my body and all the suffering engraved within it."
Forouz will also install a new, large scale ceiling mounted fabric work, stitched, dyed and embellished with memories and fragments of poetry in Farsi. There will also be a short film with an audio narration by the artist of the poem Greatest Wish by Ahmad Shamlou.
“After Women, Life, Freedom, I told myself: Be who you were. I have never censored my art, but years of homesickness kept me from engaging in protests ,even abroad. As a dual national, I was always careful. I know that my recent actions could make returning to Iran risky. But my love for Iran gives me the strength to continue. Even small steps matter. When we recognize our role as human beings, no matter how big or small. We must act.” Forouz Zarei, Berlin 2025
We hope that by doing this show we begin to help to close long held wounds and bring peaceful, balanced and healed energy into the world.
This exhibition has been curated with Alison McKenna.
In memory of Jina-Mahsa Amini, who died at the hands of Iranian morality police,16th September 2022, sparking protest against patriarchal brutality in Iran that spread worldwide.
Solo Exhibitions
2022: Drowned in Tears, Sharif Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2016: Self-Portrait, Gegen Stelle Gallery, Wuppertal, Germany
Group Exhibitions
2025: On Paper, ARTchive, Tehran, Iran
2024: Light Years Ahead, Leicester Gallery, Leicester, England
2023: In Between, Praise Studio, Berlin, Germany
Light Years Ahead, John Marchant Gallery, Brighton, England
Für, Kunstwerden Gallery, Essen, Germany
2022: Conjugation of the Present Dwelling, Sheydaei Gallery, Tehran
2019: Abe and Okuta, Ethereal Trigger, London, England
2016: My Home is My Art, Koblenz, Germany
My Home is My Art, Cologne, Germany
2015: Royal Gallery, Tehran Mon Amour, Munich, Germany
Artist Residency, Munich, Germany
2011: Third Drawing Festival, Dr. Sandozi, Imam Ali Museum, Tehran
2007: First Drawing Festival, Dr. Sandozi, Imam Ali Museum, Tehran,
2005: First Drawing Festival, Karaj, Iran
2004: Islamshahr University, Iran