TEHRAN – Rozita Sharafjahan, the curator of Tarrahan Azad Gallery, a major gallery in Tehran for young artists, has said that Iranian art galleries suffered their worst year as the government withheld its support from the galleries.

“The government’s support for the independent currents was insufficient, while we had previously enjoyed official support for organizing conceptual and independent exhibitions and overseas showcases,” she told the Persian service of Honaronline on Monday.

“Strict regulations have been designed to send artworks to international expositions, and all these unnecessary bureaucracies have caused us to regress several years,” she lamented.

Sharafjahan noted, “Despite their lower prices, artworks by young artists fail to find buyers during exhibitions so financial problems put obstacles in the way of promising young artists being introduced to the country’s art community.” 

She expressed her hope that the government would provide facilities for the galleries to carry out more independent art projects in the Iranian new year.

The coronavirus pandemic has also caused great uncertainty for the art galleries in Iran. The galleries have been forced to cancel all their exhibitions during their peak season, which is the last month of the Iranian year.

Photo: Tarrahan Azad Gallery curator Rozita Sharafjahan in an undated photo.

MMS/YAW