Event details
We are delighted to announce our first exhibition of 2026: “Face to Face, Strand by Strand”.
Private View: 17 January, 4:00–8:00 pm
Entry: Free
The exhibition presents a series of digital paintings and prints by Rouzbeh Kamali (Iranian–British artist and poet, b. 1975), inspired by Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom movement. Blending references to Iranian miniature with the visual language of street art and political pamphlets, the works bring questions of body, visibility, and resistance into sharp focus.
The title, Face to Face, Strand by Strand, echoes a celebrated poem commonly attributed to Táhirih (Qurrat al-‘Ayn), remembered in modern Iranian memory for her public unveiling and her state execution in 1852.
The paintings are shaped by the girls and women who, with untamed, liberated hair — without compulsory hijab—took over the streets in Iran three years ago, and were met with severe repression by the state. In these works, faces and gestures oscillate between presence and disappearance, and writing enters the image as visual matter: sometimes private, fragmented; sometimes closer to public language—phrases from protestors that entered everyday speech. One such example is the words of a young person before being killed, “I am someone’s child too.”
Kamali’s references to Iranian miniature and illustration are not decorative: by removing perspective, the image moves closer to the logic of street art —pamphlets, flyers, and urgent print—images made to be passed hand to hand, and to disrupt the dominant structures.
The title “Face to Face, Strand by Strand” echoes a celebrated poem commonly attributed to Táhirih (Qurrat al-‘Ayn), remembered in modern Iranian memory for her public unveiling and her state execution in 1852, during the Qajar era.
Here, “strand by strand” names both the subject and the method: hair released into freedom, and a way of following signs to the last thread—precisely at the point where erasure tries to produce an ending.
About the Artist
Rouzbeh Kamali is an Iranian-British artist, poet, and journalist, whose writings have been published across Persian-language websites and periodicals. He lived in Iran until 2017, where he had held several painting exhibitions. He returned to painting in London after some years, first on canvas, and later through digital art and print.
Please visit Rouzbeh’s Instagram page to see more of his work. https://www.instagram.com/rouz.kamali/