A woman with long dark hair and a watch on her left wrist, sitting at a table in a cafe, smiling and resting her chin on her hand, with a large water dispenser and portraits on the wall behind her.

Shadi Zahiri

Untitled works from the Mirror series

In the Mirror series, I intended to foreground the resilience of women in the face of societal and cultural challenges. The paintings depict female figures in positions of quiet endurance, resistance, or detachment. The settings surrounding these central figures often contain references to motifs of masculinity in art and popular culture across different eras —from angular architectural columns to machinery. Layered within bold compositions inspired by Neo-Expressionism and the Trans-Avantgarde movement, these juxtaposed elements are intended to highlight the narratives of women navigating patriarchal systems generation after generation.

About the Artist

Shadi Zahiri is an Iranian-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, art educator and researcher based in Vancouver BC. She holds an MFA in Painting and Design from Tehran University and has more than two decades of teaching experience.

Zahiri’s art practice explores the intersection of gender, cultural heritage, and historical power structures. Working across painting, mixed media, and installation, she draws inspiration from her research in Persian iconography, architecture, and feminist critique to examine how dominant narratives shape women’s roles in society. More recently, she has been particularly interested in exploring how symbols of masculinity are embedded in art and architecture in different eras, particularly during the Achaemenid and Sassanid dynasties.

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