Selected Solo Exhibitions
2014
LA Artcore, Los Angeles, CA (in preparation)
2011
Institute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma, CA
2010
Queen Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2009
San Jose City College Art Gallery, San Jose, CA
2007
Northwest Reno Library, Reno, NV
South Valleys Library, Reno, NV
2003
Art Corner Gallery, Cologne, Germany
2002
Shambhala Buddhist Meditation Center, Cologne, Germany
Bochum Kulturrat (City of Bochum Cultural Center), Germany
1998
Hourian Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1997
Other Art Gallery, Southern Oregon State College, Ashland, OR
1994
Footwork Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1989
Walter McNamara (SxN) Gallery, Reno, NV
1988
Manville Gallery, Reno, NV
Selected Group Exhibitions
2014
Red Mountain Gallery, TMCC , Reno, NV (in preparation)
2012
Estense Castle Museum, Ferrara, Italy (in preparation)
2011
ArtPeople Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Arts West Gallery, Elon, North Carolina
Queen Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2010
Gallery 133, Toronto, Canada
2009
California State University, Fullerton Grand Central Art Center
Vision Gallery, Chandler, Arizona
2008
Galleria Lallihome, Varenna, Italy
2007
la Giornata del Contemporaneo (Organized by Camaver Kunsthaus), Lecco, Italy
Sierra Arts Gallery, Reno, NV
Cesi Palace, Acquasparta, Umbría, Italy
Catherine Bouwer Gallery, Reno, NV
2006
Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery, Reno, NV
2003
HotHouse Center for Performance & Exhibition, Chicago, IL
2002
Mojaveri Gallery, Cologne, Germany
2001
Kunsthof Merten, Merten, Germany
2000
Köln Galerie, Cologne, Germany
Aria Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1999
Ovissi Gallery, Emeryville, CA
Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran
WORKS Gallery, San Jose, CA
Eklektikos Gallery, Washington, DC
Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
Evolving Perceptions, Washington, DC
1998
Mehregan festival, Irvine, CA
1997
Evolving Perceptions, National Press Club, Washington, DC
San Jose City College, San Jose, CA
Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
1996
Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA
1995
Monterey Peninsula College, Monterey, CA
1994
Herbst Pavilion, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA
Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA
Walter/McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA
1993
Terrain Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Iranian Artist's Exhibition, Redwood City, CA
Walter/McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA
1992
San Francisco Art Institute Spring Exhibition, CA
1991
Dow & Frosini Gallery, Berkeley, CA
1990
E. L. Wiegand Museum of Art, Reno, NV
1989
Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas, NV
1988
Ackerman Center, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Nevada State Council on the Arts, Reno, NV
Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery, Reno, NV
Home Federal Bank, Reno, NV
1987
Walter McNamara (SxN) Gallery, Reno, NV
1986
Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV
Education
MFA San Francisco Art Institute, Painting 1995
BFA San Francisco Art Institute, Painting 1992
BA University of Nevada - Reno, NV Art 1990
Awards & Grants
2007 Sierra Arts Endowment Grant
1993 Annual San Francisco Art Institute Student Exhibition
1989 Craig Sheppard Memorial Art Scholarship
1988 Annual University of Nevada - Reno Student Art Exhibition
1988 Craig Sheppard Memorial Art Scholarship
1988 Home Federal Bank Art Competition, Reno, Nevada
1988 Sierra Nevada Arts Foundation Grant, Reno, Nevada
1987 Annual University of Nevada - Reno Student Art Exhibition
1986 Annual University of Nevada - Reno Student Art Exhibition
Publications
2010 Hidden Wounds, Paper Bullets - Iranian Contemporary Art Exhibition Catalog
2008 Iran Today, by M. Kamrava, M. Dorraj, Greenwood Publishing Group
2008 Between Shadow and Light: Contemporary Iranian Art and Artists, by Hengameh Fouladvand
2006 BRUSHFIRE, Literary publication of the University of Nevada, Reno
1998 Heilman-C Gallery, November Guest Artist
1998 Featured Artist, January issue of THE IRANIAN Internet Magazine
1997 Featured Artist, October issue of THE IRANIAN Internet Magazine
1992 San Francisco Art Institute View Book
1991 Dialogues (Goftegu dar Shahr) Magazine, Berkeley, California
1990 Nevada Biennial Exhibition Catalog, Reno / Las Vegas, Nevada
1990 BRUSHFIRE, Literary publication of the University of Nevada, Reno
1989 University of Nevada Press catalog cover
1989 BRUSHFIRE, Literary publication of the University of Nevada, Reno
1988 BRUSHFIRE, Literary publication of the University of Nevada, Reno
Collections
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut
Permanent Collection of the University of Nevada - Reno Art Department
and various private collections in the U.S. and abroad
Other activities
1996/85 Member of various choirs including the University of Nevada - Reno Symphonic and
Concert Choirs, Berkeley Community Chorus and San Francisco Choral Society
1984/85 Member of Bijan Mofid Theatre Company, Los Angeles, California
Teaching Experience
2005/08 Adjunct Faculty, University of Nevada - Reno Art Department, Reno, Nevada
1993/92 Assistant Instructor, Painting & Drawing, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California
My work is a personal journey of exploration into the realm of the spiritual through the alchemy of paint, color, light, texture and the poetics of space.
My paintings are records of this intuitive journey. My paintings are densely layered compositions made over time with numerous layers of thick and thin washes and glazes. I start with calligraphic-based gestural marks, solid forms and shapes which then begin to disintegrate as the layers explode and implode, are added, rubbed out, re-applied, scoured into and scraped away and built back up, expanding and developing in a rhizome like, lateral structure until the distinction between the foreground and the background and the spatial hierarchy begin to dissolve - somewhat akin to layers of memory - and give way to another, ephemeral sense of form and visual phenomena.
I approach my work in the studio with as much of a Zen beginner's mind as possible, quieting the mind, connecting to a greater energy and using the energy of the gravity of the earth to push and move paint. What interests me is the unfolding, evolutionary process and the in-between states; the states of formation/transformation. The paintings are simultaneously intimate and grand in scale, alluding both to a microcosmic and macrocosmic scale.
I work in series and each series has its origin in a cognitive/emotional spark, an experience which is used as a point of departure. The different series are ongoing and expand at their own pace. It may take a new painting in a series ten years to come to fruition while other series continue to evolve and expand at a faster tempo.
I am interested in the primordial energies that are revealed through the interplay of contradictory forces - those of the within and the without - on the surface of the painting. Layers of vibrant colors over deep textures, gestural abstraction and forms, atmospheric passages where forms and marks become metaphors for a transcendental reality developing in a fractal like fashion with not a single point of entry but multiple points of entry. In these atmospheric abstractions, I look for a sense of resonance, not a representation of the spiritual energy but a translation of it into light and texture, navigating the space between stasis and movement.
I use squeegees, spray bottles, a bamboo Wok cleaning brush and an array of other non-traditional as well as traditional tools to make marks and to push paint around. I lay down numerous thin glazes and washes of color, allowing each to dry before the next is applied. The technique is time-consuming, but creates rich textures, depth and luminescence.
The paintings take anywhere from several weeks to several years to complete. I usually work on multiple pieces at the same time so there are always pieces in different stages of completion. They keep shifting around and rarely develop chronologically.
Living in the space between two cultures, I am interested in investigating the nomadic in-between spaces: between emergence and disappearance, between the solid and the void. I am further interested in the mechanics of a symbiotic relationship between Persian and Western Art; the former being my innate orientation and the latter the tradition in which I have been trained. My interest lies not in a synthesis of styles but rather in an epistemological approach and in the tectonic interactions that give rise to the creation of peaks and troughs within a culture, dismantling those visual vocabularies to their most bare and abstract cultural elements and sensibilities, using this as a point of departure to move more and more towards a terrain that lies in between the musical and the architectural.
