Mostafa Dashti

Mostafa Dashti, a painter born in 1960 in Khash (southeastern Iran), is one of the students of Aydin Aghdashloo. His earliest works were influenced by the landscape of his childhood region, Khash, as well as by his many travels with painter Ali Golestaneh. His early paintings show a tendency toward Impressionism. From the early 1990s, however, Dashti began to depict the same hazy horizons and untouched nature through a more abstract lens. His landscape paintings were first exhibited in 1992 in the group show “Mira Art”, held in an abandoned factory. His first solo exhibition took place in 1998 at Seihoun Gallery. The last work from his early period was a monumental 18-panel landscape created in 1991. Dashti’s abstract works often carry apocalyptic undertones, featuring a luminous, colorful point expanding across the horizon. His treatment of nature—with a limited palette and free brushwork—gradually distanced itself from objective reality, culminating in an expressive abstraction. In later years, following his painterly impulses, he created compositions with thick and thin patches and dripping pigments—forms that feel both familiar and unsettling. Dashti’s paintings convey the drama and spirit of nature. He has exhibited his works in numerous solo and group shows both in Iran and abroad. A book titled “Paintings of Mostafa Dashti” (covering works from 1988 to 2005) and a short story titled “Crystal Crabs” have also been published by him.