Even as a painter, you have to be a poet.
Eli Navadeh
Biography
Eli Navadeh is a contemporary, multidisciplinary artist, composer, and writer. He was born and raised in Iran (Tehran) and lives and works in The Netherlands.
During his primary school years, he took lessons in drawing and painting from his aunt, an art teacher. Afterward, he received some education from professional painters.
Besides his secondary education, he studied Piano and Composition at the Tehran Conservatory of Music.
During his adult life, Navadeh immigrated to the Netherlands, where he studied Medicine and specialized in Dermatology at the universities of Amsterdam, Maastricht, and Groningen. Besides his artistic activities, he practices cosmetic dermatology and esthetic surgery.
His benefit piano concert in 2010 contributed to the realization of a new space for the Psychiatry department in Diaconessen Hospital Meppel. He has also organized a few workshops and presentations in Meppel and Zwolle from 2012 to 2015, among Hypnosis & Art and Art in Psychoanalysis.
He wrote two novels: Seduction Theory and Kimiya (published in The Netherlands in 2012 and 2015). Kimiya is translated into Persian and published in Iran in 2021.
Artist statement
As a painter, I try to bring all my cultural inspirations and artistic aspirations together in my visual art. My paintings are poetic, philosophical stories rich in references to music, literature, science, religion, and various influences from art history. I want to allow the viewer to experience these disciplines throw my visual language of vivid color and simplified form.
My works explore universal human themes such as creativity, identity, relationships, emotions, and the mind. Always depicted with a touch of humor, irony, or absurdity, and in a personal and cryptic way.
Western and Persian art and culture influence my work. My paintings are inspired by surrealism, expressionism, conceptual art, and Persian miniatures. All my artistic expressions have a romantic or mysterious atmosphere. Therefore I think I never lost my Persian roots as an artist living in the Western world.