Born in Tehran in 1976 Ali Banisadr moved to San Diego California with his family when he was twelve. He moved to New York in 2000 to study a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts, and for a Master of Fine Arts at the New York Academy of Art. In an interview he had stated that he is influenced by his childhood memories, notably of the Islamic revolution and the brutal Iran-Iraq war. He compares his work to Hieronymus Bosch and other figurative artists, whose work revolve around dynamism and conflict. Ali states that he experiences the neurological condition synaesthesia, which greatly affects his paintings, imbuing a sense of sound and vitriol. His figures are mostly inspired by Persian miniature, along with large brushstrokes that he employs to create an astounding abstraction. In his paintings one not only feels the brutality that he has experienced, but also confronts the human evil in general. In his paintings Ali demonstrates despair, isolation and terror in unique concealing form and dessign. Opposition and conflict are at the heart of his work and in a statement Ali described his fascination with all histories of war, conspiracies, colonialism, and corruption, ancient and modern battles.
Banisadr’s work is represented in the museum collections of Albright- Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, The British Museum in London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Los Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Centre Georges Pompidou , Paris, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The artist also features in private collections such as The Olbricht Collection in Germany, Francois Pinault Foundation in Italy, London’s The Saatchi Gallery, Vienna’s Sammlung Essl, and The Wurth Collection in Germany.
