For American-Iranian painter Ali Banisadr, creating art is beyond a pure hobby or a choice, it’s a necessity. Growing up amidst the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war during a time of upheaval, art became not only a coping mechanism, but a way to understand the world around him and organise his thoughts. “At a young age, the only way I could process that chaos was in a visual manner,” Banisadr says. “That same habit continued throughout my life. There are so many abstract thoughts that for me, can only be expressed visually.”
As Banisadr grew older and reflected on his youth, he started believing more and more that there was a reason he experienced what he did, a deeper meaning behind it all. “This idea of what lies beyond the story on the surface is very interesting to me,” he says. For Banisadr, art now served another purpose than to understand his environment: to show others his vision of the world.
