Iranian state media spotlights London biennial of Iranian art

Iran’s state news agency has highlighted a London exhibition of contemporary Iranian art weeks after Iranian officials disputed a Venice Biennale statement that the country had withdrawn from this year’s international exhibition.

The Islamic Republic News Agency published a photo report on Saturday on the sixth edition of “With My Roots Biennale,” a contemporary Iranian art exhibition held at Mall Galleries near Buckingham Palace. The agency said the exhibition featured 182 works by 127 Iranian artists living in 17 countries.

Mall Galleries is not a British government venue but a central London exhibition space operated by the Federation of British Artists, a charity and company. The show was privately organized, not a British state event.

But IRNA’s decision to cover it turned the exhibition into part of a broader state-media picture of Iranian cultural reach abroad, at a moment when Tehran is trying to shape how the country is seen during the war with the United States.

The London coverage follows other recent efforts by Iranian cultural institutions and state-linked media to frame art as part of the country’s wartime public messaging, including a Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition titled “Art and War” and official calls for universities to promote Iran’s wartime achievements through exhibitions and cultural programming.

The show ran May 23–30 in the West, East, and North Galleries at Mall Galleries, according to the venue’s listing. Mall Galleries described the exhibition as bringing together emerging and established Iranian artists from the U.K., Europe, North America, and the Middle East, with works spanning painting, photography, digital art, installation, and video.

Photos published by IRNA showed a broad range of work, including dense calligraphic abstractions, cityscapes, landscapes and figurative paintings.

One striking image showed a large black canvas filled with women covered in chadors, most rendered as small dark forms, while several white-clad figures stood out sharply against the crowd. Other works drew on Persian calligraphy, carpet motifs, architectural imagery, and layered abstract surfaces.

A special section titled “Eternal Iran” included works by Hossein Ali Machiani, whose solo presentation was also listed by Mall Galleries as part of the biennial. The venue described Machiani’s practice as combining traditional and contemporary mediums to produce Iranian miniature artworks.

The exhibition’s appearance in Iranian state media comes after a separate dispute over Iran’s expected participation in the Venice Biennale.

As Urgent Matter previously reported, Aydin Mahdizadeh Tehrani, director-general of the visual art office of Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, denied that Iran had withdrawn from the Venice Biennale after organizers said the country would not participate in this year’s international art exhibition.

Tehrani said Iran sought a shorter exhibition model rather than a full seven-month presence, citing high costs, political uncertainty, concerns among artists, and the country’s lack of a permanent Venice structure.

He said Iranian officials remained in consultation with biennale organizers but were unable to resolve the terms of participation.

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