Mehrnoush Elahipanah (b. 1981, Tehran) was born into a multicultural family with Kurdish, Armenian, and Persian roots. Her childhood unfolded during the Iran-Iraq War within the complex context of post-revolutionary Iran. After receiving her initial training in painting and drawing in Tehran, she pursued studies in Graphic Design at Gharb University in Baku, Azerbaijan. She subsequently moved to Italy, where she earned a Master in Visual and Web Design at the Scuola Politecnica di Design (SPD) in Milan.
Her work is an intimate quest for belonging: an internal “Place” emerging from the confluence of memory and identity. Earlier in her artistic practice, this exploration was contained within geometric grids — echoes of Persian architecture — that ordered the flow of memories. In her current phase, this structure dissolves into automatic writing and liberating gestures. Guided by the memory of the hand, her marks retain the curvature of Persian calligraphy but transform into a nervous, pure visual rhythm free from literal meaning, where broken calligraphic lines give form to silent experiences.
Working primarily with acrylics on large-format canvases, her process of layering and erasure allows her to explore the fluid nature of memory.
She currently lives and works in Milan.
