Mohsen Veysi
Artist, Researcher, and Educator
Short Introduction
Mohsen Veysi is an artist and researcher working at the intersection of poetry, calligraphy, and abstraction. His practice investigates how language becomes visible, transforming poetic texts into autonomous visual forms through gesture, material process, and translation across Persian and Latin scripts.
Practice
His work is rooted in the relationship between text and image, where poetry is not illustrated but transformed. Drawing from Persian calligraphic traditions—particularly Nasta’liq and Shekasteh, historically shaped by poetic forms—he approaches writing as an expressive and embodied act. Through processes of transcription, layering, and abstraction, language departs from legibility and re-emerges as a visual field. Each work operates as a visual counter-poem: originating from language, yet existing independently from it. Working across Persian, Italian, and English contexts, his practice is shaped by transcultural experience as a lived condition, where translation and the use of multiple scripts continuously reconfigure cultural identity through form rather than fixed representation.
Research
His research operates across art history, theory, and practice, focusing on the history of drawing, text and image, drawing and poetry, Persian art and calligraphy, global art history, and the historiography of Alois Riegl. His doctoral research, Kunstwollen: A Contemporary View – Local, Global, Transcultural, reexamines Riegl’s theory within global art production. His work also explores the perceptual and affective dimensions of writing, including the relationship between language, mood, and handwriting, extending into neuroaesthetics and neuroarthistory. Across historical and contemporary perspectives, he investigates how cultural, visual, and cognitive forces shape artistic form.
Teaching / TAS
Alongside his studio practice, he teaches art history and studio arts, developing an approach he defines as Art History in Practice, integrating historical knowledge directly into creative processes. He is also the founder of Transcultural Art Space (TAS), a platform for art, education, and cross-cultural exchange.
Education
- Ph.D. Human Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy (2020)
Dissertation: Kunstwollen: A Contemporary View – Local, Global, Transcultural - MFA, University of Cincinnati, OH, USA (2016)
Thesis: Portrait of a Poet, Portrait of a Poem - M.A. Visual Arts – New Media, Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Italy (2014)
Thesis: La Linea, L’Uomo, e Il Tempo (Line, Human, Time) - BFA, Painting, Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Italy (2011)
Thesis: Disegno è un’Opera d’Arte (Drawing as an Art Form)
Certifications
- Foundations of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University | Coursera (2025)
- Visual Perception and the Brain, Duke University | Coursera (2025)
- ISSA Certified Personal Trainer & Nutritionist | CPR/AED Trained (2024)
- Master of Excellence (Momtaz) in Persian Calligraphy, Society of Iranian Calligraphers (2003)