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Mina Alikhani, “No One is Free Until We Are All Free,” 2023. Oil on Canvas, 48 x 60 inches. (Photo: Mina Alikhani).
Mina Alikhani’s studio in Los Angeles’ trendy Silver Lake neighborhood is filled with afternoon light. The open plan space is airy and functions as a living, breathing art installation. Most of the easels are empty as Alikhani’s latest paintings are being framed for her upcoming exhibition, Crimes Against God, which is opening tomorrow at Rebecca Molayem Gallery and runs by appointment only until May 16. Still, there are trolleys with art materials strewn about, bookcases filled with curious volumes, and semi-permanent artworks on the walls. On the wooden dining-turned-work table, the self-taught visual artist has a couple of work-in-progress sculptures she’s determined to finish in time for the exhibition.
Alikhani fits in here. Her paint-stained pants are rolled up, and her work shirt is tied around her waist. She’s in the final stretch before the exhibition’s opening. Crimes Against Godis Alikhani’s third solo exhibition in two-and-a-half years. Her first, Defiance, opened on September 16, 2022, the same day as the brutal death of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian woman who died while in police custody. Amini’s death sparked protests in her native Iran and around the world against the country’s dictatorial theocratic regime. The pieces in Defiancefeel like a foretelling of these events. For Alikhani, a millennial who was born and raised in the U.S. by Iranian parents, the resistance began when she learned about the restrictive regulations of the Islamic Republic through family members.
Mina Alikhani, “Inherently Different, Beautifully Equal,” 2024. Oil on Canvas, 60×72 inches. (Photo: Mina Alikhani).
“Even before I had a better understanding of what it means to live under the Islamic Republic, I instinctively felt I didn’t want to be in a country where women couldn’t show their hair without getting arrested,” says Alikhani. “But, as I became more of who I am as a woman and found my voice and art, I learned the motherland is so rich in history of art and poetry and architecture and design. I started to learn more about where the country was going, and where it took that hard turn to where it is now.”
Visiting Iran is not an option for the artist— Alikhani is outspoken on social media, not just through her striking artworks, but also her expository words that are as personal as they are informational,. Through her art, she brings the plight of the people of Iran, particularly the women, in a visceral yet nuanced way. This has reached a pinnacle of sorts with Crimes Against God. The title refers to the blanket charge with which the Islamic Republic hands down which carries with it a death sentence.
This exhibition takes a different approach to Alikhani’s last solo series, Revolution, which showed at Art Basel 2022. In the Revolution paintings, which were created during the height of the Iran protests, Alikhani’s anger is tangible. The work is jarring, with images of nude women wearing hijabs coverings their heads and faces with a slit for their eyes riding and/or leading Islamic clerics like livestock.
“No one really got it,” says Alikhani of the pieces in Revolution. “Some people did understand and were horrified. Some people were educated. Some people were like, ‘Wait, is that real? I thought they wanted that. I thought this was a choice.’ I started to get a really clear understanding of how effective the propaganda covering up the fact that in ’79 [the year of the Islamic Revolution in Iran], everything changed.
Mina Alikhani “Crimes Against God,” 2023. Oil on Canvas, 48×72 inches. (Photo: Mina Alikhani).
She continues, “It’s been an interesting journey from Art Basel 2022 to now, watching myself on the soapbox, trying to get people to care, trying to speak to people’s hearts and morality and ethics, and being really deflated because very few people really care. The powers that be rely on us to not care. They rely on us to be asleep and feel so separate. Where we’re at today, it’s only going to escalate and it’s only going to become more and more apparent why it should matter what’s happening in Iran, and in all the countries where the Islamic Republic has its proxies nested. It’s no secret how we got here and what the potential is what could happen in the future.”
Her experience with Revolution spurred Alikhani to find a more direct connection with audiences, putting the situation in Iran in the context of issues the Western world understands and seems to care about: LGBTQIA+ rights, women’s rights, civil rights, human rights, free speech and more specifically, holding your partner’s hand, dancing, women singing—if Taylor Swift or Beyoncé lived in Iran, their voices wouldn’t be allowed. All these are illegal under the Islamic Republic where rape as punishment is legal.
To create Crimes Against God, Alikhani had to retreat and reach deep into her hopelessness, darkness, and sense of defeat. She emerged ready to find common ground with her audience. The collection features large works on canvas, 10 salon-style pieces on paper, as well as select sculptures and an immersive performance art piece. Crimes Against God depicts mainly women. Most of the figures in the paintings are faceless to separate the viewer from associating or disassociating from the subject. Some are nude, while others wear simple clothing. They share a message of resistance and hope. Endless staircases feature prominently, symbolizing a journey toward change. Some run through the figures’ heads, signifying a change of mind and others through their chests, representing a change of heart. The deceptive simplicity of Alikhani’s work is where their true subliminal power lies.
“The reason I’m amplifying this messaging in my work isn’t just for the Iranian people and because I’m Iranian, it’s so much more than that,” Alikhani says. “My heart goes out to the people in Iran as it does the people of Afghanistan and Yemen and Palestine and Israel and everybody that’s directly suffering from oppression of the Islamic Republic and all its proxies. It’s just so much bigger than the Iranian people. I recognize we have a long way to go, but we’re making steps towards that change.“
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