Battleborn

Azad Gallery is pleased to announce Battleborn, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Anahita Darabbeigi. The exhibition runs from November 21 to December 2, 2025.

Battleborn marks Darabbeigi’s fourth solo presentation and is the culmination of two years of theoretical and practical research into Persian visual motifs. The collection focuses on the ancient motif of Gereft-o-Gir (The Struggle)—a historical depiction of combat often featuring animals such as lions and bulls or dragons—reinterpreted through a contemporary lens.

Darabbeigi’s work summons these archetypal performers from the depths of art history to stage a new, infinite combat. While deeply rooted in her Master’s thesis research on motifs found in Jiroft, Elam, and Balkh artifacts, the artist transforms these symbols to reflect modern contexts. Notably, influenced by the social events of 2022, Darabbeigi has reimagined the traditionally male lion figures as lionesses, challenging historical symbols of power and kingship. As stated in the exhibition statement, "It is the lioness who dares to attack the enchanting dragon".

Moving away from the Western academic emphasis on perspective and focal points, Darabbeigi adopts the visual logic of Persian carpets and miniature painting. Her compositions reject a single vanishing point in favor of a "flat" space where every corner is treated with equal focus and detail. For Darabbeigi, the subject of combat is an excuse to construct a unique visual space, much like a weaver improvising a carpet, inviting the viewer to traverse the image detail by detail.

Anahita Darabbeigi (b. 1996, Tehran) holds a BA in Painting from the Art University of Tehran (2019) and an MA in Illustration from the University of Tehran. She began her professional career at age eighteen with her debut solo show Sleep (2013) at Fereshteh Gallery. Her subsequent solo exhibitions include Single Trees of Tehran (Golestan Gallery, Online) and Like a Tree Standing (Vista Gallery) in 2023.

Darabbeigi has participated in numerous group exhibitions at galleries such as Aria, Didaar, Aran, Haft Samar, and Javid. Her work has been showcased at the Taipei Art Fair via X-Power Gallery and selected for the Khor Art Prize (2023) and the Verses Award (Siah Ghalam) in 2021 and 2025