Alireza Shojaian (born 1988, Tehran) is an Iranian-born painter and visual activist whose work foregrounds queer masculinities and the politics of the body. Now based in Paris, he uses intimate, often vulnerable portrayals to confront state censorship, violence, and erasure faced by LGBTQ+ communities across the Middle East.
After early studies in Tehran, where his focus on queer subjects forced him to work in secrecy, Shojaian left Iran in 2017 and later received asylum in France. His practice spans large-scale figurative painting, collaborations with regional artists such as Khansa, and sociopolitical projects including the PaykanArtCar (2021), a mobile memorial addressing anti-LGBTQ+ persecution in Iran.
Shojaian’s work has been shown internationally and continues to challenge how desire, masculinity, and resistance can be rendered in contemporary art.
