Key Takeaways:
- Contemporary illustrator Mandana Houshmandian launches her first solo exhibition, “My Inner World”, at Azadi Tower.
- The Mandana Houshmandian exhibition features 30 works combining abstract imagery with Joufa script and visualised Persian poetry.
- The show probes contradictory human emotions and presents the human face as a stage for mind and unconscious feeling.
- The public exhibition runs 14–18 Dey, open daily from 10:00 to 18:00 at the Azadi Tower café-gallery.
The first solo exhibition by Iranian illustrator Mandana Houshmandian, titled “My Inner World,” will be on display at the café-gallery of the Azadi Tower cultural complex. A preview opening will take place on Friday 12 Dey from 15:00 to 17:00, with the public exhibition running from 14 to 18 Dey, daily between 10:00 and 18:00.
Houshmandian, a graduate in graphic design from Sooreh University, presents a collection of 30 illustrations that marry abstract imagery with the calligraphic strokes of Joufa script, rendered in a deliberately deformed, contemporary style. The works reduce and rework familiar facial features so that the human face becomes a canvas to present thoughts, emotions and the unconscious.
Mandana Houshmandian exhibition explores inner contradictions
The pieces probe simultaneous, contrasting feelings such as loneliness and uproar, love and aversion, courage and fear. Houshmandian uses form and line to set up visual tensions, asking viewers to confront the friction between these states rather than to resolve them. Faces appear and dissolve into abstract mark-making, inviting sustained attention and repeated viewing.
Persian poetry plays a visible role in the show. Verses are woven into the composition, not as captions but as formal elements that interact with line, shape and texture. In this way, text and image work together to express moods that are meant to be experienced rather than simply read. The result is a sequence of images that feel intimate and immediate while remaining formally adventurous.
Curators say the combination of calligraphic script and modern illustration situates Houshmandian’s work within a broader contemporary art conversation in Tehran, where younger artists are reinterpreting traditional graphic forms. The Azadi Tower venue, known for hosting cultural programmes and exhibitions, provides a central and accessible setting for the artist’s first large-scale public presentation.
The exhibition’s visual language leans on deformation and repetition. Faces and fragments recur across the series, sometimes only hinted at through a single sweeping mark, at other times presented with layered colours and textures. This approach allows the artist to suggest psychological states without fixed narratives, offering viewers space to project their own associations.
Practical information for visitors: the Azadi Tower café-gallery will welcome guests from 10:00 to 18:00 each day between 14 and 18 Dey. The opening preview on 12 Dey runs from 15:00 to 17:00. Admission details are expected to follow through the gallery’s communications channels.
For audiences interested in contemporary Iranian illustration and the intersections between poetry and visual art, the Mandana Houshmandian exhibition provides a concentrated and accessible survey of a young artist’s developing language. The show highlights how traditional scripts and modern forms can be combined to address private emotional worlds while engaging a public audience.
