Jamal Toomaj

Jamaleddin Toomajnia is an Iranian painter, art historian and research-based artist whose work investigates the intersection of memory, cultural identity, and the silent transformation of landscapes. Living and working in Istanbul, Türkiye, he creates layered abstract paintings that blur the boundaries between physical places and emotional experience, inviting viewers into spaces where history, time, and memory coexist.

Holding a PhD in Art History from Istanbul Technical University, Toomajnia developed his artistic vision through extensive research into the modernization of art in Iran and Türkiye. Rather than separating theory from practice, he integrates academic inquiry directly into his painting process. Each work becomes an exploration of cultural archaeology, where successive layers of paint function as visual records of disappearance, preservation, and renewal.

His paintings are built through an intuitive dialogue of addition and removal. Acrylic, scraping, dripping, staining, and textured surfaces create compositions that reveal traces of earlier gestures beneath the final image. These hidden layers become metaphors for memory itself—never entirely erased, always shaping the present. While his work often suggests distant...

B.A in Painting from the Fine Arts Faculty of Tehran University.
Master of Arts in History from Tarbiat Modares University.
Art History in the Ph.D. program from Istanbul Technical University in Turkey

Sep 2011: Group exhibition of painting in ‘Hoom’ gallery, Tehran, Iran
Jan 2009: Solo exhibition of watercolor works in "Khanevade" Gallery
Dec 2008: Solo exhibition of monoprint works in "Melal" Gallery
Spring 2007: Student group exhibition at Tehran Gallery, Tehran University
Nov-Dec 2007: Solo exhibition of monoprint works in "Noor" gallery
Sep-Oct 2005: Solo exhibition of monoprint works in "Khanevade" Gallery
Summer 2004: Collaboration in "The Fourth International Painting Biennial of the Islamic World"
Fall 2003: Painting Exhibition in "Turkmen" Conference, Islamic University of Gorgan
Summer 2003: Collaboration in a group exhibition in Laleh Gallery
Summer 2003: Collaboration in "Fourth Biennial Exhibition the Muslim world"
Fall 2002: Collaboration in "Makhtoumqholy Faraghy" Exhibition, Tarbiat Moallem University, Karaj