Statement

My work is contemporary in style utilizing a mix of figurative and expressionist techniques exhibited in various media, including painting, mixed media collage, printmaking, and calligraphy. I’m inspired by the daily events that are thought-provoking and innovative by focusing on hybrid visual culture and its relationship in the context of politics of the United States and the Middle East.
My characters are mostly women, and my paintings tell stories about women’s struggles through amplifying various voices and interactions as women strive for gender equality worldwide. Through this narrative, I feel the emotional perceptions experienced by women in Iran and their lack of social justice and gender equality. They have been challenging religious traditions and practices since 1979 when the Islamic Republic instructed women’s rights and forced dress codes according to Islamic tradition.
In a recent series, I utilized narrative art to exhibit the challenges that Iranian women face to confront religious dress codes and practices that undermine gender and sexual equity in Iran after Mahsa Amini’s death on September 16, 2022, in the hands of the morality police in Tehran. My characters protest the rope and chain in the “chador,” that restricts their movement. In another, I created a portrait of a “Virgin” a sweet flower girl who is feminine and adorable but must be subservient to her husband, the “master,” according to Islamic patriarchal rules and customs. This painting pays tribute to conventional symbolism using motifs, paisley flower drawings, religious iconography, and Islamic geometric patterns.
I hold a bachelor’s degree from the National University of Iran and completed my graduate studies in urban planning and design at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Michigan State University in East Lansing. I taught at several universities for fifteen years but transitioned into the art world to follow my true dream which is artmaking. Currently, I live in Sacramento, showing my works through Sac Open Studios and other groups and solo exhibitions throughout the country to gain recognition.

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