A gallery opening in northern Tehran, and a typical scene: silk scarves barely clinging to the backs of women's heads, young hipsters, gentlemen in that most unrevolutionary of items - the tie.

Trendy, wealthy and in their element, the packed crowd edges around abstract sculptures, somewhat grotesque portraits and looped cartoons by US-based Iranian artist Pouya Afshar.

The work has clear Iranian and religious themes, drawing on traditional mourning ceremonies, yet the censorious rulers of the Islamic republic - still deeply ambivalent about the liberating and libertine tendencies of the art world - feel a world away.

Afshar, 33, himself epitomises the globe-trotting Iranian middle and upper classes. He teaches at a US university yet is still drawn back "like an itch I always need to scratch".

Such return trips have become less fraught since 2013, when a new moderate government eased social pressures and rebuilt ties with the West.

The past decade has seen the number of galleries in the city explode from just a handful to more than 100.

The clerical establishment still monitors all art for anything deemed un-Islamic or obscene, but a public space has opened up for young creatives to live in a way that would have seemed impossibly daring just a few years ago. Nima Zaare-Nahandi, whose finely detailed abstract drawings feel unattached to any time or place, pushes back against the idea that his nationality should dictate his style.

The challenge, he says, is not to create some single idea of Iranian art, but to build the institutions that can nurture future talent. "We need more than just galleries, which are purely commercial. We need education, museums, a good review." Slowly, those elements are starting to emerge, funded by a booming interest from local collectors. But the numbers are still small and many obstacles remain, says Hormuz Hematian, who founded the Dastan Gallery in Tehran five years ago.

Source: Khaleej Times