Alireza Asanloo is a painter, designer, and sculptor born in 1974 in Tehran. He is mainly known for the bronze heads he made of Iranian celebrities such as Gholamreza Takhti, Jalil Shahnaz, and Abbas Kiarostami. After exploring the world of sculpture, he focused on painting.
In 1989, Asanloo participated in the academic Jahad painting classes at Tehran University and was trained by professors such as Morteza Katouzian, Arab Ali Sharveh, and Shahab Mousavizadeh. In 2016, he was invited by UNESCO to the first international painting symposium in Paris and held a masterclass in the presence of invited artists. As one of Iran's visual artists, he painted live the faces of Iranian famous people in a painting workshop in July 2019. Loris Cheknavarian participated in this event as one of the live models. He is the founder and director of Khaneh Aftab Institute and Gallery and has participated in several solo and group exhibitions.
As it was said, Asanloo was a student of Katouzian and had a deep understanding of realist paintingHowever, most of his painting works moved away from realism towards abstraction. He does this with blurring and ambiguity, mostly in figures and portraits. The artist applies his expressionistic style using powerful brushstrokes and sometimes through finger strokes. This power in execution indicates the artist's power in design. That is why the border between painting and drawing is blurred in his works. The expression of paint can clearly be seen in Aosanloo's works. Paint is used as a means of expressing the inner emotions of the figure in the painting. Characteristic expression of line and color is related to the content of the work. Also, the often dark backgrounds of these works are executed in a way that ultimately attracts the viewer's attention to the figure or portrait. The type and direction of the faces also emphasize this centrality.
Humans are at the center of Asanloo's work. This centrality can be seen both in the form and in the content. He deals with contemporary human life in his paintings which can also be seen in his sculptures. Among other famous heads made by Asanloo, there are bronze statues of Malek Al-Shoara Bahar, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Ezzatollah Entezami, Gholamhossein Amirkhani, Morteza Momyez, Professor Reza, Professor Sotoudeh, Professor Ganji, Parviz Tanavoli, Mohammad Ahassai, Parviz Kalantari, Salman Harati, and Ziauddin Emami. They have been installed in cultural and artistic centers, universities and museums.