About Sepideh Salehi
Bio
Sepideh Salehi is a multidisciplinary artist born in Tehran. She left Iran to attend Accademia di belle Arti in Florence Italy where she received her MFA in Visual Art and Multimedia. She works in various media and utilizes different processes ranging from painting and drawing to printmaking, photography, video art, and painting in motion. By incorporating aspects of storytelling and letter writing, Salehi recollects the experiences she had growing up in post-1979 Tehran. She weaves personal narrative and cultural history into her work, reflecting on the ways in which she, and other women, navigated the shifting social and political landscapes. Some of the venues for her shows include, A Bridge Between You and Everything curated by Shirin Neshat at High Line Nine,New York, Art and Social Activism Festival, New York, Photo London, Somerset House London, Mirrored Re-Collection at the University of Maryland Stamp Gallery,REVEAL at The Space by Advocartsy LA, If So, What? Roya Khadjavi Projects SF, Patterning curated by Samantha Friedman at Kentler gallery, Brooklyn, NY, STRAPPA Rogue Space Chelsea NY, Craft and Folk Art Museum LA, the cutlog Art Fair NY, Tribeca Video Art NY, Centre for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci, Virgiliano Museum and International Bologna Art Fair Italy. She currently lives and works between Washington DC and New York.
Artist Statement
My individual work spans printing, photography and video,animation, and revolves around the poetics of the veil as well as the stories from my own country of origin. My work primarily relies on paper,from which I creates videos, collages, drawing, photography and painting.The manual process is seminal to my language and identity as an Iranian woman;however,the topics I explores,namely the power,the violence, the identity straddling national borders and cultures, as well as the role of women in our contemporary world, raise questions that refer to a more universal way of thinking.The concept of covering up, hiding and privacy are all of interest to me. Utilizing writing and words as a form of drawing is one way I find my imagery. These drawings emerge from a union between the immediacy of line and the direct and literal communicative properties of writing.I have also used the traditional Muslim prayer stone as a starting point. I borrow the etched images on the prayer stones to create patterns through rubbing and printing.The repeated images of the stones create a rhythm leading me in the end,to an imagery revealing layers upon layers. They form a pattern,echo words that become evident through this deliberate meditative work process.
CV
EDUCATION
2005 Accademia di belle Arti of Florence, Italy, M.F.A.,in visual art and multimedia
2000 Liberal School of Nude, Florence,Italy
1998 University of Azad – Tehran, B.A., in English Language and Translation
SOLO & TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2018 Mirrored Re-Collection, Stamp Gallery at the University of Maryland College Park, MD
REVEAL at The Space by Advocartsy, Los Angeles, CA
2016 STRAPPA, Dialogue & Performance curated by Roya Khadjavi at Rogue Space, New York, NY
2013 TRACES: Drawings in Motion curated by Florence Neal at Kentler International Drawing Space,
Brooklyn, NY (essay by Shoja Azari)
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2020 Focus on Flatfiles at Kentler Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Art Mutters (Alone and United) curated by Sandaleum at Triangle, Brooklyn, NY
2019 A BRIDGE BETWEEN YOU AND EVERYTHING curated by Shirin Neshat at High Line Nine
Gallery, New York, NY
Art & Social Activism Festival curated by Roya Khadjavi Projects, New York, NY
Photo London curated by Roya Khadjavi Projects, Somerset House, London
Focus Iran 3 : Contemporary Photography and Video at Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
2018 ART BRIEF IV: Iranian Contemporary at SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA
VAEFF, Video Art & Experimental Film Festival at Tribeca Film Center & DCTV, NewYork, NY
If So, What? by Roya Khadjavi Projects, San Francisco, LA
2017 The Poetics of Diaspora by Advocartsy, artnet at The Space, Los Angeles, CA
Official selection of video “Strappa” at the Farhang short film festival, Los Angeles, CA
Patterning curated by Samantha Friedman at Kentler International Drawing Space,Brooklyn, NY
ART BRIEF III: THE (UN)DRAPED WOMAN at Arena 1 Gallery, Los Angeles,CA
2016 Peace on Paper, Iran Contemporary Art Biennale at Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran
2015 Archimedes Bathtub at Lorimoto Gallery, Ridgewood-NY
Focus Iran: Contemporary Photography and Video at Craft & Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2014 The Photography Show by The Committee and AKArt advisory at Site/109, NewYork, NY
ARE WE ALREADY GONE? Artists on the Art of Leaving at Flicker Lab, New York, NY
Video screening as a VAEFF Special Selections at the cutlog New York, NY Art Fair
Circumstances at Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
2011 Video screening at Video Art and Experimental Film Festival at Tribeca Cinemas, NewYork
Bilateral Trace: Four Emerging Artists From Iran at Strohl Art Center, Chautauqua, NY
MARKED DIFFERENCES at Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
2010 WAR & PEACE at Kentler International Drawing Space,Brooklyn, NY
PROXIMITY video screening at PAH! Space, Fribourg, Switzerland
2009 the map is not the territory at the Dumbo Art Center, Brooklyn, NY
Video screening at Centre for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy
2008 Aftermath, video screening at Target Gallery in Tropedo Factory Art Center,VA
One Planet, One Experiment, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago
Food, Arte di Cibarsi – Cibarsi d’ Arte, video screening Palazzo Roffia, San Miniato, Italy
Ondavideo, Donne, Image of the women between photography, film and video art, Pisa, Italy
2007 International Contemporary Art Fair, Europeans young Artists, Mulhous, France
Echi da Tehran, Iranian Contemporary Artists at Palazzo Comunale, Pistoia, Italy
2006 Opus Liber Project, Book of Art at Academy of Arts and Design, Florence, Italy
International Contemporary Art Fair, video screening at the Biagiotti Gallery,
Bologna, Italy
2005 Opus Liber Project, Book of Art, at Museum of Virginian Mantova, Italy
Opus Liber Project, Book of Art at Rafaello’s House, Urbino, Italy
LECTURES & TALKS
2019 Shirin Neshat in Conversation with Iranian women artists, Afruz Amighi, Ala Dehghan,
Hedieh Shafiei, Nazanin Noroozi, Roya Farassat, Sepideh Salehi and Shiva Ahmadi at
Hemmerdinger Hall, NYU, NY
2019 Artist Talk at Pyramid AtlanticArt Center, MD
2019 The Only Divisions that Matter Now: A roundtable discussion with artists Sobia Ahmad, Sughra
Hussainy and Sepideh Salehi at Loyola University Baltimore, MD
2018 Artist Lecture in conjunction with exhibition Mirrored Re-Collection, University of Maryland
College Park, MD
SELECTED AWARDS, PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2019 Denbo Fellowship at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Hyattsville, Maryland
2014 – 2017 NYFA, Mentoring Program for immigrant Artists, New York, Mentor
2013 – 2016 Pardis for Children, New York, language and Art teacher
2013 – 2016 Asia Society, New York, workshop “Persian New Year Family Day”, co presented by
Pardis for Children
Asia Society, New York, workshop “Passport to Asia”
Asia Society, New York , workshop “Iran Modern”, co-presented by Pardis for Children
2006 Accademia di belle Arti of Florence, Italy, teaching fellowship at Laboratorio di pittura
