Dubai, UAE – Leila Heller Gallery is pleased to announce the opening exhibition of “The Mana Jalalian Collection: a Rare Collection of Iranian Modern Art” on 15th November 2021.

Iranian Modern and Contemporary art has long been considered a powerhouse within the Middle Eastern art world and is one of the most potent forces within the global art scene. The works exhibited have challenged cemented opinions in art and society whilst providing a unique visual landscape reflective and reverent of a rich and collaborative cultural history.

“That’s the purpose of art, and it’s our duty as art collectors to make it seen, heard, and understood for change and progress to happen”, says Mana Jalalian, an avid collector of Iranian Modern and Contemporary art.

As a young girl studying in Iran, Mana would spend a great deal of time reading and reciting poems by the late Sohrab Sepehri, one of Iran’s most notable poets and painters. The artist is someone who has greatly influenced and changed her perception of the outside world with respect to nature, beauty, and life.

When asked why she collects art, Mana states: “Art stirs my emotions and makes me question things.  It makes me feel alive and constantly intrigued by my surroundings.”  Until the present day, Sohrab’s influence on Mana remains very evident. If you were to walk down the halls of her residence in Dubai, you would observe walls filled with some of the artist’s most unique and magnificent paintings, accompanied by works from fellow pioneers of Iranian Modernism.

Mana has spent the last 15 years amassing a collection of more than 400 works of paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, video arts, woodcuts, and etchings, currently kept between Dubai, Basel, Tehran, and Vancouver. This exhibition, in partnership with Leila Heller Gallery, showcases more than 50 unique artworks from Mana’s private collection. It features some of the most prominent and influential Iranian artists such as Parviz Tanavoli, Bahman Mohasses, Mohamed Ehsai, Sohrab Sepehri, Charles Hossein Zenderoudi, Reza Derakshani, and Farideh Lashai.

Many of the artworks in Mana’s collection have been exhibited in renowned museums and biennales around the world, namely La Biennale di Venezia, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, MAXXI Museum in Rome, Davis Museum in Boston, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.