Hamid Jafari-Shakib (b. 1979, Iran) received his bachelor in painting from Tehran University of Art. Apart from painting, he has also experimented with other mediums such as photography, sculpture, installation art, and video art. Symbols play an important role in Jafari's works; symbols that are sometimes rooted in legends and sometimes adopt more contemporary forms. In the "Tehran" series, Jafari attempts to describe the city he is living in. The dancers, musicians, lions, dragons as well as words and charts present in the works not only speak metaphorically of the metropolitan city of Tehran but also show the artist's preoccupation with the visual qualities found in ancient geographical maps, spell books, and the occult.