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"Arghavan Khosravi's Intricate Paintings Find Hope amid Oppression"
Alina Cohen
May 19, 2026
In Arghavan Khosravi’s surreal, three-dimensional paintings, nothing is what it seems. Creased book spines prove to be meticulously sculpted and painted canvases. A dark nook in a castle fortress reveals a female figure peeking out from a doorway. Glowing light turns out to be a fiery bullet. “I like to have these moments where some part of the work is not shouting,” Khosravi told me in her home studio in Connecticut. “The more time you spend, the more details reveal themselves.”
The artist’s exquisite craftsmanship keeps her work mysterious and open-ended, despite her heavy, explicit themes. Her work addresses oppressive attitudes towards women in Iran, where Khosravi was born and lived before moving to the United States in 2015. The artist devotes much of her practice to crafting illusions, figuring out how to attach various panels and make wood or canvas resemble metal, fabric, or stone. “I like contradiction, contrasting elements, duality,” she said. “There’s barbed wire, but the colors are peaceful. A figure seems calm, but her hands are bound. I hope violence isn’t the first thing you see.”
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