Elham Shiravi has been passionate about painting since she was a child and continues to pursue her passion by receiving an education at the university level. Her bachelor's thesis, "A Study of Color and Image in the Seven Thrones of Rostam and Esfandiar," and her master's thesis, "A Study of Symbols and Visual and Literary Signs in Traditional Iranian Painting," both received attention from the judges and were chosen as the top-ranked research in the university.
Elham Shiravi began her artistic career in 1999 with her first group exhibition at the Isfahan Contemporary Museum, and she later sold her first artwork at the Tehran Expo in 2003. She has since actively participated in over 60 group exhibitions in Iran, Armenia, Qatar, and other countries. Showcasing her artwork on these various art platforms has allowed her to gain recognition and engage in meaningful artistic exchanges and collaborations.
For seventeen years, she has devoted herself to the education of aspiring artists, in addition to advancing her artistic career. Teaching a diverse array of subjects including painting, graphics, cloth design, and printing, she has enriched her students' understanding of artistic techniques to express their unique artistic visions.
Elham Shiravi has had solo exhibitions in Iran in addition to participating in group exhibitions. Her first solo exhibition in 2011 collection focused on women and society under the supervision of Master. She studied art theory, philosophy of art, and advanced painting under the guidance of the Nasrollah Moslemian. He wrote the critique for her selection:
" Understanding reality and achieving expressive form can be achieved through an extensive transformation of reality in the mind and the manifestation of form. Transformed reality, accompanied by the artist's individuality, finds expression in a perceivable and interpretable artistic form. Elham Shiravi has brought herself very close to this form of expression. Her works instantly render it clear that we are dealing with an artist who is sensitive to form. Her works are characterized by the interplay of various times and places, as well as the clever use of intense contrasts in design and the initial spiritual essence of lines. The playful metaphor with shape and color, the clarification of lines, and the expression of tragedy in figures and faces reveal her as a diligent and thoughtful artist who has marked the future."
Nasrollah Moslemian
Later, a group of artists, including Elham, established the ROD Art Group, which was managed by Dr. Alireza Sami Azar and was overseen and supported by the Museum of Contemporary Art. ROD had several exhibitions in Tehran at the Barg, Mat, and Di Galleries. A collection of these works was exhibited at Armenia's Akanat Gallery. At the time, the museum purchased one of Elham's works.
Elham's artistic and professional collaboration with Negar Art Gallery began in 2017 with the launch of her second solo exhibition "Burning of the Portrait." Influenced by social and political events in Iran, she painted small and medium-sized portraits in figurative expressionism style, with an emphasis on facial features, bold exaggeration in expressions, warm colors, and often decisive black lines.
The "Knife" was a collection of designs, performance art, and artwork published in the French electronic magazine La Casw Est Belle under the theme "What Sweetens the Mouth." Elham,s "Knife" collection was never exhibited anywhere since it was purchased by a reputable collector in the first place.
Elham and two other artists (Ali Ansari and Basira Balbali) founded the art group (The Incomplete Three) in 1395. Their goal was to showcase artworks to decentralize and break away from the capital city's art scene, and to promote modern art literacy in other towns. The artworks of the group have been displayed in cities such as Isfahan, Shiraz, and other cities. During this time, Elham focused on design. Inspired by her surroundings and urban environments, she combined her world perceptions with portraits and figures of animals and humans. By exploring her surroundings, she used various techniques to combine these disparate elements into conceptual rich artworks.
Her third solo exhibition, "Orientem se Pictura" featured eleven composite portraits with intense emotional expressions that combined portraits and iconic miniatures from Persian miniature history. She blended expressionistic portrait experiences with her theoretical knowledge of Persian miniatures and Eastern myths and symbols to present a new perspective on Iranian painting, one that embodied its identity while also being able to be translated into a contemporary visual language. Her husband, Hamed Malek, an esteemed Iranian composer and musician, composed a one-minute music piece for each of these 11 artworks.
Her fourth collection, titled "The Winning Deck" took place as a solo exhibition in the Negar Art Gallery. She is also working on another collection called "Maxiator," which offers a fresh perspective on Persian miniature. This collection, characterized by abstract expressionism, emphasizes the structure of painting, empty spaces, colors, and the silence amidst forms. It represents her latest professional painting experiences in a new and innovative way.