Tehran Street Art of Mehdi Ghadyanloo

Street artist Mehdi Ghadyanloo painted surreal images onto the building walls in Tehran, Iran.

Boring walls no more! Ghadyanloo paints murals that depict phantasmagorical scenes which resemble those of Belgian surrealist René Magritte’s work. Buildings in Tehran often have one decorated facade while the other three sides are left blank. For muralists like Ghadyanloo, these untouched walls are great canvases for their works.

He studied art and drawing, and has a Master’s degree in Animation. As an animator, he was exposed to storytelling and surreal short animations which inspired the imagery he applied on his murals. When he’s not painting his murals, Ghadyanloo teaches a course on mural art at Soodeh University in Tehran. Also, he’s currently preparing for an exhibit at Galleri Geo in Bergen, Norway. He is scaling down his collection to fit the gallery space environment of the exhibition.

A child riding on a bicycle upside-down a building. An apartment building with whimsical folded facade. Flying cars and motorcycles. Featured below are some of Mehdi Ghadyanloo’s murals that seem to be optical illusions, making us believe we’re really looking at dreamlike scenes.