Payam Qelichi (b. 1993, Arak, Iran) has a Diploma in Graphic Design as well as a BFA in Painting that he has received from the Tehran University of Art. He has participated in several group shows. His works generally revolves around moral, human concerns. Moral degradation and confusion in the society is something he depicts by creating chaotic, dramatic atmospheres with a false sense of spirituality. Qelichi lives and works in Tehran.

We humans are slaves to the illusion of having a self. Failing to achieve it in the real world, we search for it in fantasy so that it can work as opium in our encounter with the painful events that seek to destroy us in our every waking hour. The mind tricks itself to cope with dreadful events, turning to fantasy to make a temporary image of our higher self; similar to a paper reality floating on water. Deep inside this darkness, we reach an image of ourselves and a lost ideal, which is the recurring shadow of the same bitter truth in a new context. Finally, we find ourselves experiencing the same impasse we were running away from.