Farah Ossouli

New Perspectives in the Leonora Carrington Hall
Exhibition from June 27 until October 5, 2025

Farah Ossouli is one of the first artists to engage with classical Persian miniature painting and reinterpret it within a contemporary context through her own visual language. She interweaves references from both Persian and European art and cultural history into symbolically charged images that poetically center feminist themes.

For her exhibition at the Max Ernst Museum Brühl of the LVR, Farah Ossouli has created a new 15-part series of works. The title, Remember the Flight, the Bird Will Die, is taken from a poem by Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad (1935–1967). The series also connects with Max Ernst’s socially critical collage novel Une semaine de bonté (A Week of Kindness, 1934). A recurring motif in Ossouli's series is hair, which she stages as a multifaceted symbol pointing to femininity, intimacy, and vulnerability, as well as societal power structures, control, and political oppression.

Farah Ossouli (born 1953 in Zanjan, Iran; lives and works in Tehran, Iran) earned her degree in graphic design from the Tehran University of Art in 1977, two years before the onset of the Iranian Revolution. In 2001, she co-founded the Iranian women artists’ group DENA. She has received multiple accolades, including the Iranian Women Artists Award in Tehran, and is active not only as an artist, but also as a mentor, curator, and juror for national and international exhibitions and competitions. In 2002, she served as chair of the 6th Tehran Painting Biennial.

Farah Ossouli’s works are held in the collections of major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA), the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (Tehran, Iran), and the Ludwig Museum (Koblenz, Germany).

Curated by Madeleine Frey and Sarah Louisa Henn