Shirin Mirjamali’s exquisite intensity

Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / The Iranian government has looked askance at political assertiveness and social progressivism since the revolution of 1979. The pressure under which women operate is especially heavy. Political protest, however, cannot be a way of life. Day to day, Iranians are compelled to avoid confrontations that could place them in jeopardy, discreetly acknowledging anguish and resolving to sublimate it. Shirin Mirjamali, whose exquisitely intense works on paper are now on display in her solo show “Hidden Longing” at Anita Rogers Gallery, exemplifies this essentially pensive disposition.

Pervading and, after a fashion, dominating Mirjamali’s large-scale works – equipped with diaphanous sliding shades in a nod to compulsory veiling on several levels – as well as her smaller ones are mostly naked female bodies, apparently confined to domestic spaces but invariably in motion, at times in counterpoint with inert, jaundiced men. The women are usually zaftig and showing their age, and by turns demure and aggressive, seductive and luridly intimidating. Her penetrating candor recalls Egon Schiele. While her women in situ objectively reflect facts of life, they also spurn traditional male preferences and sensibilities. If this brand of defiance is archly passive, it is also unmistakable, and anointed by refined, subtle technique. Mirjamali’s line is purposefully erratic and brittle, a bit like Ralph Steadman’s, imparting instability and perhaps a hint of restiveness. Complex human interaction both wholesome and base ramifies in figures intricately fused or overlaid but never indistinct: individuals claim their ground however jostled. Her use of color is incisive, registering emotional tone with remarkable precision. In a kind of Joycean paradox, the net effect is expansively and even gloriously claustrophobic.

Wrenching juxtaposition – intimacy and ugliness, crudeness and elegance, humor and dread, assault and retreat – is a signature Mirjamali quality. It bespeaks a refusal to simplify, which suggests a nuanced stance against orientalism alongside frank appreciation of Iran’s particular circumstances and a refusal to renounce her country writ large. That idea may resonate far beyond Iran. The work, however, is not fundamentally political. She does not have the cultural leeway to muster an overtly feminist focus like, say, Maria Lassnig or Joan Semmel, who paint naked women warts-and-all for more singular reasons. But in seamlessly connecting interior and exterior life, and authentically co-locating grace and coarseness, Mirjamali’s work is roundly successful art.

“Shirin Mirjamali: Hidden Longing,” Anita Rogers Gallery, 494 Greenwich Street, Ground Floor, New York, NY. Through November 26, 2025.

About the author: Jonathan Stevenson is a New York-based policy analyst, editor, and writer, contributing to the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, and Politico, among other publications, and a regular contributor to Two Coats of Paint.