Ashkon Haidari
A surreal, windswept scene from Ashkon Haidari’s studio, with layered canvases leaning like relics from a forgotten realm.
Introduction
Ashkon Haidari’s paintings feel like portals — expansive scenes that are both familiar and unplaceable, surreal yet grounded in history. Born in 1991 in Chicago to a Persian-American family, Haidari paints contemporary allegories that draw deeply from his ancestral heritage while engaging the visual language of Western surrealism. His figures inhabit imagined terrains that echo with Persian myth, ancient poetry, and the graphic clarity of centuries-old miniature painting. And yet, there’s something distinctly American — even Midwestern — in his work: a playfulness with scale, a melancholy undercurrent, and a knack for storytelling that feels equally cinematic and spiritual.
"My relationship with my culture is palpable, yet alienating... so my work becomes a way to build a world in which I belong."
Studio & Process
Haidari’s process is rooted in reflection — on ancestry, displacement, and continuity. Working primarily in oil, he constructs layered visual narratives that combine the dream-logic of surrealism with the precise formal elements of Persian miniatures and medieval manuscripts. His characters are often caught mid-gesture: barefoot travelers, mirrored torsos, hybrid beasts. They suggest not just mythic identities, but the tension of navigating multiple histories at once. His studio is part archive, part laboratory — a space where old stories are reimagined in present-tense.
"I’m in conversation with Persian allegory and Chicago surrealism. Those are my coordinates. But I’m trying to create a new mythology from that meeting point."
Featured Artwork: Two Birds
Created specifically for Fable & Form, Two Birds (2025) is a 36 x 51-inch oil painting on canvas. The piece shows two elongated, otherworldly figures poised on a motorcycle at the edge of a shoreline. One looks inland, resolute, while the other dips a talon-like hand into the sea — a symbolic act of remembering, or perhaps divining. The sky glows with a muted fire, and a flame burns inside the rearview mirror, suggesting past and future are always close. The painting holds Haidari’s signature blend of humor, melancholy, and mystery, inviting viewers to interpret the myth for themselves.
What’s Next?
In addition to Fable & Form, Ashkon Haidari has had recent exhibitions at Anna Zorina Gallery (New York) and a solo presentation with Povos Gallery (Chicago) in 2025. These new chapters continue his exploration of cultural inheritance and the slow, intentional act of crafting personal mythology through art.
Follow Ashkon:
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