Koorosh Shishegaran (b 1944, Qazvin, Iran) Shishegaran is considered one of the most expressive and emotive artists of the contemporary Iranian art movement. In a career spanning six decades, he has established himself as an artist of great discipline, social awareness and manual skill, working in a wide array of different media, from graphic design to painting, photography and furniture design.

Drawing inspiration from Iranian visual culture, Shishegaran is best known for his scribble line abstract paintings (Khatkhatis). These dynamic colour- ful lines, depicting the contemporary human condition, enabled the artist to find a style and language expressive of the modern era. His more familiar style of painting is only one of the various artistic experiences of the Shishegaran’s practices. These include a wide array of experiments on different media and a range of approaches. The works before 1981 could be classified into different series, including Mass Production Works (1973-74), Appropriation of Works of Great Artists (1974-76), Postal Art (1976), Art+Art (1976-77), and other two periods – with collaboration of his brothers, Behzad and Esmail – Art for Production (1977-78), and Political Posters (1978-81). Since 1983 he has concentrated more on painting and drawing. This interest in whirling lines, however, was obvious in his first solo exhibition in 1973. Shishegaran exhibited these paintings first in 1989 and then 1992, 1997, and 2006 in solo shows. Throughout these years, aside from developing his painting style and participating in many group exhibitions, both inside and outside Iran, he has created other series of works, such as War Drawings (1990), PhotoWorks (2006), and Self Portraits (2008).

Shishegaran received a BA in Interior Design from the Tehran Faculty of Decorative Arts in 1973. He has since participated widely in solo and group exhibitions around the world, including Art Dubai (2015); Shirin Gallery, Tehran (2015); Unedited History. Iran 1960–2014, at MAXXI, Rome (2015) and Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2014); Opera Gallery, London (2012); Beijing Biennial (2003); Barbican Centre, London (2001); Meridian Center exhibitions in the United States (2001–03).