Mohammad Reza Khalaji is a contemporary Iranian sculptor. Born in 1974 in Zanjan, Iran, he is a graduate of sculpture from the University of Tehran, Faculty of Fine Arts.

M.R Khalaji has participated in several groups and solo exhibitions, including group exhibitions in Mexico-city and Tehran Contemporary Sculpture Biennial. In May 2019 he participated in “Revolution”, the International Fine-Craft Biennial in Grand Pallais, Paris.

His sculptures generally represent a combination of abstraction and figuration, typically merged within one single piece. They usually employ different qualities of various materials, acquired through complex making procedures. Extra-fine finishing and high-quality execution have long been a major characteristic of Khalaji’s artistic idiom. At times, Indigenous aesthetic elements, including Iranian-Islamic calligraphy adorn parts of his pieces.

Khalaji’s first solo exhibition in Iranshahr Art Gallery included a series of semi-figurative aluminum sculptures marked by an extra-fine execution, using calligraphy incised on some facets. These pieces included figures trapped and stuck in amorphous, bag-like structures. Extra feet of the figures symbolized an urge to escape the overwhelming, solid structures. His second show in Iranshahr art gallery demonstrates a considerable transition. Executed in copper and aluminum, the pieces combine an abstract and figurative approach, and the remarkable technical quality and fine finish appear side by side with a crude, expressive texture. Erosions, fluxes, and burnt surfaces uncover a new sculptural idiom. The figures tend towards abstraction and the confining structures, a metaphor of traditions and social norms, are symbolized by the formless restraining constructions and the feet trapped in them.