IN recent months biennials around the world have dedicated special sections to a hot new field: Middle Eastern artists. And many of the most celebrated hail from Iran, like Farhad Moshiri of Tehran, whose paintings covered with Swaroski crystal-encrusted calligraphy have brought $1 million-plus at auction, or Shirin Neshat of New York, widely acclaimed since the late 1990s for her films and videos featuring veiled women.

Reza Derakshani, courtesy Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery

Reza Derakshani’s “Mixed Identity.”

These artists have something else in common besides their national origin: at one time or another, most have had some involvement with Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller, an expatriate Iranian art dealer who runs a small gallery on East 78th Street in Manhattan.