Salman Khoshroo was born in 1983 in Iran, and grew up in New York while he received a degree in digital art in Australian National University. Working in his studio in Tehran now, he uses a large palette knife to spread oil colours directly on large canvas(typically measured at 1.6m by 1.6m), with exuberant techniques. His paintings capture the abstraction of the human body and the emotion it conveys in a concise way.

Salman is a self-taught painter, started his artistic experience with taking photography in the streets of Tehran. During the Iranian Green Movement in 2009, he was forced to spend more time in the studio and ever since started his painting endeavor. Portrait of acquaintances is where he started the journey, and the style goes from realistic to abstract and expressionist, human faces are his focus.

Minimal Portraits by Salman Khoshroo
Minimal Portraits by Salman Khoshroo
Minimal Portraits by Salman Khoshroo
Minimal Portraits by Salman Khoshroo

From 2015, Salman Khoshroo shifted from paintbrushes to palette knife, smearing the paints directly across the canvas. The result is abstract figures but precise intent, a combination of Lucian Freud’s portraits and Claude Monet’s mastery of colours.

Minimal Portraits by Salman Khoshroo
Minimal Portraits by Salman Khoshroo
Minimal Portraits by Salman Khoshroo