London Just Opened a Rare Exhibition of Nearly 200 Iranian Artworks

Nearly 200 works by around 100 Iranian artists will be presented at Ab-Anbar Gallery in London from September 19 to 26, 2026, in an unusually large exhibition titled A Present Tense: Contemporary Artists Living and Working in Iran. Around 20 Iranian galleries and art spaces are participating in the project, which aims to give younger artists international exposure at a time when sanctions, war, travel restrictions and economic pressures have made it increasingly difficult for Iranian artists to participate in the global art world.

London Is Bringing a Rare View of Contemporary Iranian Art

Something unusual is happening in London’s art world this September.

For one week, Ab-Anbar Gallery will bring together nearly 200 works by approximately 100 artists who live and work in Iran.

The exhibition, titled A Present Tense: Contemporary Artists Living and Working in Iran, opens on September 19 and runs through September 26.

On paper, the numbers alone make the exhibition remarkable.

Nearly 200 artworks.

Around 100 artists.

Approximately 20 Iranian galleries and art spaces.

But the real significance of the project lies beyond its scale.

The exhibition offers international audiences an opportunity to encounter contemporary Iranian art at a moment when many of the artists creating it have fewer opportunities to travel, exhibit internationally or reach collectors outside Iran.

The project is therefore not simply an exhibition.

It is an attempt to keep an artistic network connected.

Why This Exhibition Is Different

Large group exhibitions are common in London.

What makes this one different is where the participating artists live and work.

The exhibition focuses specifically on artists currently based in Iran.

That distinction matters because international access to Iranian contemporary art has become increasingly complicated.

Sanctions can make financial transactions difficult.

Shipping artworks internationally can be expensive and complicated.

Visa restrictions can prevent artists from travelling.

Foreign galleries can also be reluctant to represent artists whose work involves complicated logistical and financial arrangements.

As a result, an artist can be producing significant work in Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan or another Iranian city while remaining largely invisible to audiences in London, Paris or New York.

This exhibition attempts to close some of that gap.

Around 20 Iranian Galleries Are Working Together

One of the most remarkable elements is the number of galleries involved.

Around 20 Iranian galleries and art spaces have joined the project.

That cooperation is unusual in itself.

The initiative grew out of conversations between Salman Matinfar, the founding director of Ab-Anbar, and Orkideh Daroodi, founder of Tehran’s O Gallery.

Matinfar already understood the difficulties facing Iranian artists.

He had previously been part of Iran’s art scene before closing his Tehran gallery and opening Ab-Anbar’s London programme in 2020.

Daroodi approached artists and galleries across Iran with the idea of bringing their work directly to London.

The response was unusually broad.

Rather than competing individually, galleries agreed to participate in a collective presentation.

For the organizers, that cooperation became part of the meaning of the exhibition itself.

Art During a Difficult Moment

The exhibition is taking place against a difficult political and economic background.

Iran’s art community has faced pressure from sanctions for years.

More recently, conflict and instability have added another layer of uncertainty.

According to The Art Newspaper, some Iranian galleries have faced forced closures during the ongoing conflict, while artists have experienced difficulties travelling abroad and getting their work shipped internationally.

These circumstances make an international exhibition considerably more complicated.

An artwork has to leave Iran.

It has to be transported safely.

It has to pass through complicated logistical systems.

It must eventually return or find a buyer who can legally acquire it.

For a small gallery or independent artist, those obstacles can become overwhelming.

The Exhibition Does Not Tell Just One Story

One of the most important decisions made by the organizers was not to present a single image of Iranian art.

The exhibition brings together different styles, subjects and artistic approaches.

That is important because there is no single definition of contemporary Iranian art.

Artists working in Iran are not all making political paintings.

They are not all responding directly to war.

They are not all working with traditional Persian imagery.

Some work with painting.

Others use drawing, photography, textiles, sculpture, mixed media or other contemporary approaches.

Their subjects can range from everyday life and urban environments to memory, identity, abstraction and personal experience.

The exhibition attempts to preserve that diversity.

Young Artists Are at the Center

A particularly important aspect of the project is its emphasis on younger artists.

For emerging artists, international exposure can be transformative.

An exhibition in London can lead to new collectors.

It can introduce artists to curators.

It can create relationships with galleries.

It can help researchers discover new practices.

But opportunities of this kind can be particularly difficult for Iranian artists.

The organizers therefore want the exhibition to create a direct bridge between artists working inside Iran and audiences outside the country.

The ambition is not simply to sell art.

It is to make the artists visible.

The Prices Are Surprisingly Accessible

Another unusual feature is the pricing.

The organizers have deliberately selected prices ranging roughly from £200 to £3,000.

That puts the works within reach of a much wider audience than a conventional high-end contemporary art fair.

Someone does not necessarily need to be a major international collector to participate.

The pricing strategy also gives participating galleries an opportunity to generate income from sales.

That matters because the project is partly about sustaining the wider artistic ecosystem.

An artist depends on a gallery.

The gallery depends on sales.

The sale supports the artist.

The artist creates new work.

And the cycle continues.

When one part of that system becomes unstable, the consequences can spread throughout the entire art community.

What Is an Artistic Ecosystem?

The phrase “art ecosystem” can sound abstract.

In reality, it is remarkably simple.

Artists need studios.

Galleries need exhibitions.

Collectors need access to artworks.

Curators need artists to research and present.

Museums need exhibitions and collections.

Publishers need new scholarship.

Art fairs connect galleries with collectors.

All of these elements depend on one another.

When sanctions, war or restrictions disrupt one part of that network, the consequences can be serious.

The organizers of A Present Tense are attempting to keep at least one connection open.

Iranian artists create the work.

Iranian galleries help represent it.

Ab-Anbar provides a London venue.

And international audiences finally have an opportunity to see it.

Why Shipping the Art Is So Difficult

Getting the artworks to London has reportedly been one of the project’s biggest challenges.

The organizers deliberately selected many smaller works on paper, cardboard and textile because they would be easier to transport.

Even so, shipping costs turned out to be significantly higher than expected.

That detail reveals how much invisible work is required to organize an international exhibition.

Visitors may enter a gallery and see a painting hanging neatly on a wall.

They rarely see everything that happened before that moment.

The artwork may have been carefully packed in Tehran.

Transport arrangements had to be organized.

Documents had to be prepared.

Costs had to be calculated.

The work had to travel across borders.

And everyone involved had to accept a certain degree of uncertainty.

In this case, that process was particularly complicated because of the political circumstances surrounding Iran.

A Risk Shared by the Galleries

The participating galleries also accepted considerable uncertainty.

According to The Art Newspaper, there was no absolute guarantee that all works would be shipped and returned safely.

That makes the collaboration unusual.

Galleries were effectively trusting one another and the organizers to manage a complicated international project.

For Orkideh Daroodi, the willingness of Iranian galleries to work together was itself significant.

She described the response as something she had rarely seen during her years in the Iranian art business.

The project therefore demonstrates something beyond artistic cooperation.

It demonstrates institutional cooperation.

Art as a Form of Connection

Salman Matinfar has described the project as an effort to demonstrate that art can connect people even when political circumstances make communication more difficult.

That idea is central to the exhibition.

Art does not remove political conflict.

It does not eliminate sanctions.

It cannot solve international disputes.

But it can create a relationship between people who otherwise might never meet.

A London visitor can encounter an artist working in Tehran.

A collector can discover a painter they had never heard of.

A curator can encounter an unfamiliar artistic practice.

An artist who has never travelled to Britain can suddenly have their work seen by an international audience.

That connection is small compared with geopolitical events.

But for an individual artist, it can be enormously important.

The Exhibition Refuses the Easy Stereotype

There is another important dimension to the project.

Iranian art is sometimes presented internationally through the lens of politics alone.

War.

Protests.

Sanctions.

Repression.

Conflict.

Those subjects are undeniably part of the reality surrounding artists.

But they are not the entirety of Iranian artistic life.

The organizers have deliberately avoided creating a show in which every artwork has to represent political trauma.

Instead, the exhibition allows different artistic voices to coexist.

That approach matters.

Artists should not have to become symbols of their country’s political circumstances before international audiences take their work seriously.

Contemporary Iran Beyond the Headlines

For international audiences, an exhibition like this can offer something that news coverage cannot.

News reports describe events.

Art can reveal how people experience their surroundings.

A painting may focus on a street.

A photograph may document a landscape.

A textile work may explore memory.

An abstract composition may have no obvious political subject at all.

Together, these works can create a much more complicated picture of contemporary Iran.

Not a political slogan.

Not a stereotype.

A society seen through many individual perspectives.

The Importance of London

London is an especially important location for the exhibition.

The city is one of the world’s major art capitals.

It contains museums, auction houses, galleries, universities, art fairs and collectors from across the globe.

An exhibition here can reach an audience that would be extremely difficult for many Iranian artists to access directly.

That makes Ab-Anbar’s role particularly significant.

The gallery was founded in Tehran in 2014 and expanded its programme to London in 2020. It opened its permanent London space in Fitzrovia in September 2023.

Its London location now functions as a bridge between artists working in Iran and the international art world.

A Present Tense Is About the Present

The title A Present Tense is revealing.

This is not an exhibition of historical Iranian art.

It is not a survey of Persian miniature painting.

It is not an attempt to reconstruct a distant cultural past.

It is about artists working now.

That emphasis is important.

Iran has a long and extraordinarily rich artistic history, but contemporary Iranian artists are not simply continuing ancient traditions.

They are responding to modern cities, technology, global culture, economic pressures, migration, politics and personal experience.

Their work belongs to the present.

Why International Exposure Matters

International exposure can change an artist’s career.

A work seen by one curator can eventually appear in a museum.

A collector can introduce an artist to another collector.

A gallery can decide to represent someone.

A critic can write about an unfamiliar practice.

These connections often develop slowly.

But they can begin with a single exhibition.

That is why the London project could have consequences beyond its one-week duration.

The physical exhibition is temporary.

The relationships created around it may not be.

The Possibility of a Larger Journey

The organizers are already considering what could happen next.

Matinfar hopes the exhibition could eventually travel to other major art centers, including New York, Paris and Los Angeles.

If that happens, the project could become much larger than its London presentation.

The idea would remain the same.

Take contemporary Iranian art directly to international audiences.

Create opportunities for artists.

Support galleries.

And demonstrate that Iranian contemporary art cannot be reduced to one style, one generation or one political narrative.

What Visitors Will Actually Encounter

For someone visiting the exhibition, perhaps the most interesting experience will be the variety.

Nearly 200 works mean there is no single visual language.

One room may contain painting.

Another may offer photography or works on paper.

A different artist may approach the city, landscape or human body in a completely different way.

That variety is precisely what the organizers want.

Instead of presenting “Iranian art” as one category, the exhibition presents individual artists.

Their differences matter as much as their shared geography.

A Small Exhibition With a Large Idea

At first glance, A Present Tense might look like another international group exhibition.

But its structure tells a different story.

Around 100 artists.

Around 20 galleries.

Nearly 200 works.

One London gallery.

One week.

And an enormous logistical effort to make the project possible.

The exhibition demonstrates what can happen when galleries choose cooperation instead of isolation.

It also shows how international art institutions can create alternative routes for artists who face barriers entering the global market.

Why This Matters Now

The timing is crucial.

Iranian artists are working during a period of uncertainty.

Some galleries have been affected by conflict.

Sanctions continue to complicate international transactions.

Travel restrictions make participation in international exhibitions more difficult.

Yet artists continue to create.

That may be the most important fact behind the exhibition.

Despite the obstacles, contemporary Iranian art has not disappeared.

It continues to evolve.

It continues to experiment.

And it continues to search for audiences.

London Becomes the Meeting Point

For one week in September, London becomes a meeting point between two art worlds that are often separated by politics and logistics.

Artists working in Iran.

Galleries operating in Iran.

A London-based Iranian gallery.

International collectors.

Curators.

And ordinary visitors interested in discovering something unfamiliar.

That meeting is the real achievement of the project.

The artworks are the visible part.

The network behind them is the deeper story.

A Window Into an Art Scene the World Rarely Sees

A Present Tense: Contemporary Artists Living and Working in Iran opens at Ab-Anbar Gallery in London on September 19 and runs until September 26, 2026.

The exhibition brings nearly 200 works by around 100 Iranian artists together in one place.

But its significance cannot be measured simply by the number of artworks on the walls.

It represents an attempt to keep artistic connections alive when political and economic circumstances make those connections increasingly difficult.

For visitors, it offers a rare chance to see contemporary Iranian art on its own terms.

Not as a political headline.

Not as a historical footnote.

But as a living, diverse and constantly changing artistic scene.

And perhaps that is the exhibition’s strongest message.

Even when borders become harder to cross, art can still travel.

Sources

• The Art Newspaper – London gallery brings together 200 works by Iranian artists
• Ab-Anbar Gallery – official website