New Perspectives and the Diaspora: Contemporary Iranian Art with Shirin Towfiq and Pantea Karimi
Thursday, Feb 6th. | 6 p.m.
Join us on Thursday evening for an artist talk moderated by Zoe Latzer featuring Shirin Towfiq and Pantea Karimi. This discussion will explore how cultural backgrounds and environmental factors have influenced the lives and work of these contemporary artists. The event is free and open to the public. Please register here: New Perspectives and the Diaspora
Pantea Karimi is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator based in Northern California. She grew up in post-revolutionary Iran and her education in science and art at school was convoluted with religious indoctrination. Karimi’s art collectively explores historic, religious, scientific, and political themes using performative video, animation, sound, print, drawing, and installation. Taking the cue from her research on Iran’s religious, and scientific manuscripts and objects, Karimi’s work highlights archival materials and personal narratives reflecting upon her gender and upbringing in Iran, intertwined with conflicting political, religious, and societal issues.
Shirin Towfiq is an interdisciplinary artist working with an emphasis on installation, sculptural photography, video, and textiles. Drawing from her positionality as a second-generation Iranian refugee, her artwork explores the complexities of belonging and placemaking through archival research and intergenerational communication with a diasporic lens. She focuses on everyday practices of belonging and visual culture, as produced by migrants, and reflects on the traces of diaspora to investigate cultural memory, history, and temporality.