My work is a battleground for the conflict between my fundamental questions about life and the ancient, religious, mythological, philosophical, and scientific material that claim to have been able to provide partial definition and instruction on how life should be lived.
- M.Smart
M.SMART (b. 1998, Iran) is a young visual artist who works and lives in Tehran. One of the top Khor Art Initiative 2021 artists, M. Smart represents the younger generation of highly promising Iranian artists who use an increasingly playful, vibrant, and universal visual language to capture their multilayered existence in a fast-paced world. Joining an art group active in the Iranian graffiti and rap scene was an early turning point in Smart's life where he was a vocalist and designed album covers. The tragic death of his friend and fellow artist in a car accident prompted him to coin his artist's name by combining the first letter of his own name (Mahdi) with his late friend's nickname "Smart". In 2017, M. Smart established the "Eastern Whistle", an art group that has held many shows in Tehran and other Iranian cities, including "Down with Reality" in Emrouz Gallery (Isfahan) and "New Day, Eastern Whistle" curated by influential art figure Fereydoun Ave at Lajevardi Foundation (Tehran). Since then, he has held several solo shows including "Bees Eat Flowers" at Delgosha Gallery (2018), and "Quack" at Homa Gallery, (2022) in Tehran. M. Smart's cartoonish characters - often including self-portraits - against brightly colored, psychedelic backgrounds channel the anxiety and disorientation of individuals who live inside a society driven by paradoxical values: regional versus international, indoctrination versus liberalism, connected yet isolated. Preferring clarity of forms and media of quick impact, M. Smart mainly prefers to work with acrylics.