Behind the Art - Elena Masrour

Elena Masrour was born on May 5, 1990 in Tehran, Iran. She received her BFA in Fabric & Textile Design from Tehran University of Art in 2013 and received her Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Kansas State University in 2022. She currently lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio where she is a visiting faculty-in-residence at the Cleveland Institute of Art.  

Masrour was interested in art from a young age, especially as a legacy artist. She recalls being ten years old and attempting to copy a self-portrait her grandfather completed, to her grandfather’s great amusement. In high school, she was afforded the opportunity to take several elective drawing classes and soon realized that artist was to be her path in life. At Tehran University of Art, Masrour initially studied fashion design. However, she encountered great difficulties in the field, finding few real opportunities for creative enterprise due to the strict dress code enforced by the Irian government. She recalls a experience in which she entered garments in a textile competition, but her entry was not considered as she photographed her designs on a live model, a taboo in the Islamic Republic of Iran which polices depictions of women to ensure images that perpetuate ideals of humility and chastity. With a new wave of social restrictions beginning in 2014, Masrour sought other avenues of creative expression and was drawn to traditional mediums including painting and drawing. Ultimately, faced with limited opportunities for female artists in Iran, Masrour decided to apply for Master’s programs abroad including in the United Stated. Coming to the U.S opened her eyes to the freedoms for creative expression available to citizens of this country and underscored her desire to utilize the tools of artmaking – pen, paper, canvas, and paint – as tools of protest to bring a voice to her Iranian sisters.  

Masrour began creating work about the religious propaganda of the Iranian regime and the social changes that occurred after the 1978 Iranian Revolution. Her works critique Islamic fundamentalist beliefs that control women’s lives and limit their freedom including the governmental policy of compulsory hijab in public spaces. Her works explore weighty and controversial topics but juxtapose the content with formal inspiration drawn from comic books, especially those of the Platinum and Golden age of comics. While Masrour has a fondness for a broad range of characters including Wonder Woman, Superman, The Hulk, Ms. Marvel and many other comic staples, one of her most treasured influences is Blondie. Debuting in 1930 in the New York American daily newspaper, Blondie depicts not a superhuman woman but rather, a regular woman – a blonde bombshell who participates in a range of mundane activities unavailable to the women of Masrour’s home country.

Masrour draws inspiration from her own life as well as the lives of her friends and loved ones in Iran. In “Help yourself, drink more water” a multi-story tall female figure, clad in a pink, flower patterned bathing suit squats over a communal swimming pool. Children and other swimmers lavish in the idyllic setting, descending water slides and flying kites. The giant female figure, the heroine of the painting, smiles gaily while simultaneously drowning a man with her right foot. The piece is inspired by a story from Masrour’s childhood when she and her family visited the Caspian Sea in 1998. Before entering the water, her parents explained to her and her bother that they could not swim together; she and her mother would swim in another area for the women while her brother and father would swim in a separate area for the men. She recalls her brother bursting into tears and how her father attempted to calm him, promising a day full of joy with his peers but her brother was not persuaded. As the year’s passed, Masrour reflected on this experience, and she began to realized that “this separation would be applied to her entire social life” in Iran.

Many of her paintings are large scale, in excess of 5 feet or more. Masrour uses scale strategically not only to envelop the viewer in the narratives she portrays but as a means of creating life-sized female figures that serve as placeholders for the women (and their stories) that these paintings draw inspiration from. Masrour sees her work as publicly reclaiming power, the power denied to her and the women of Iran and with her work, she aims to embolden the women of her home country as well educate people the world over, about the plight of the women of her home country.

Masrour is passionate about process and materials, finding joy in her large and labor-intensive oil paintings as well as her meticulously crafted ink and brush drawings. As she is deeply influenced by comic book imagery, her works are composed to enhance the narratives that inspire each piece. She uses preliminary sketches to determine perspective, shadows, and even patterns and even incorporates Iranian symbols like the tulip blossom or the wrapper of a popular candy in Iran - Fusen gum.

In her current role at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Masrour teaches a variety of undergraduate classes. She not only enjoys imparting wisdom to her students but also views herself as somewhat of a diplomat, sharing her Iranian heritage and culture with many who are unfamiliar with the country and region.