Ali Adeli
Born in Téhéran (Iran) in 1946.
Died in Région de Hamadan (Iran) in 1997.
Iranian · Geometric abstraction and kinetic experimentation · applied art, interior architecture and design
An Iranian artist, interior architect and designer active between Tehran, Geneva, Fribourg and California, Ali Adeli developed a practice in which painting, spatial construction and the applied arts continually informed one another. His training at the Tehran School of Fine Arts, begun in the early 1960s, gave him a strong foundation in drawing that continued to guide both his architectural projects and his visual research.
Based in Geneva from 1982, he worked as a designer for a company associated with the Murano glass tradition. He subsequently moved to Fribourg, where he contributed to a publishing project as an artistic adviser. Switzerland thus became one of the principal centres of his activity alongside Iran.
Between 1985 and 1987, professional stays in California expanded his work into interior design, decorative settings and limited-edition objects. These experiences strengthened his interest in combining Art Deco, precious materials, pictorial surfaces and functional design.
After returning to Fribourg, he opened a combined studio and gallery in 1987. In the series L’or dans l’art, he experimented with gold leaf, eggshell, acrylic paint and plaster relief. Light was more than a decorative element in these works: it emphasised incisions, raised forms and transitions of colour, turning the painted surface into a constructed object.
From around 1988, the cube and its perspectival distortions became the central principle of his “creative geometry”. Faceted reliefs, silver leaf, mirrors and optical contrasts linked his work to geometric abstraction and kinetic experimentation, in the wake of the visual ideas he admired in Victor Vasarely. Under the Adeli Création name, he extended this language to furniture, mirrors, lighting and architectural elements.
Adeli returned to Iran in 1993 and resumed architectural work in Tehran, notably contributing to the Park Miniature tower project. He presented a body of his work in the Iranian capital in 1994. Painting, relief, design and architecture consequently emerge throughout his career as complementary aspects of a coherent investigation into form, material and perception.