ABOUT

Photo Credit: Khalil Anvar
Biography:
Reza Alhosseini is a painter based in San Francisco, California, where he completed his MFA in painting at the Academy of Art University in 2015.
Since 2003, his works have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the Middle East and the United States. Notable exhibitions include various solo and group presentations at Sandra Lee Gallery in San Francisco, CA, culminating in “The Annual Holiday Group Exhibition,” in 2015 , as well as the Left Coast Annual Juried Exhibition at the Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica, CA (curated by Claudia Schmuckli, Chief Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) in 2018.
Throughout his career, Reza has earned notable recognition for his work, including being selected for the "New Generations" exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco in 2014, and receiving the MFA Still Life Award at the Academy of Art University's Spring Show in San Francisco in 2015.
Artist's Statement
Painting is a perennial search and exploration of my everyday life, deeply rooted in the philosophy of light, nature, and the open road. Journeys through landscapes and the heart of nature serve as my greatest sources of inspiration. These travels, combined with observation and study, allow me to gather a visual memory that I bring back to the studio—ranging from still lifes and natural scenes to works that ultimately culminate in abstraction, arising entirely from intuition and observation and translated into an abstract visual language.
I always start painting with a mood and a concept, contemplating how to create a desired atmosphere and which materials will best articulate it. It is a warm, friendly dialogue between myself and the piece. Creating a dynamic composition with a variety of shapes is what makes a painting successful and aligned with my vision. I begin with thumbnail sketches to explore layout, move on to a small oil color study to capture essential colors, values, and shapes, and then build the final piece. While my style maintains a realistic foundation, I embrace spontaneity: I allow the evolving concept and imagination to guide the process, often letting the painting dictate its own next steps.
I believe that concept and technique form an inseparable chain, each responding to the other in harmony. I blend different techniques and mediums to achieve the clearest expression of an idea. Ultimately, art is a playground to expose the artist’s visions of beauty. As the American painter Robert Henri once said: "No material thing is beautiful. All is as beautiful as we think it."