About Us

CURATORS

HONORARY COMMITTEE

Exhibition Curators

Narges Bajoghli received the 2005 Susan Knafel Fellowship to study at the University of Tehran. Having spent the last year in Iran, Ms. Bajoghli brings to the exhibition her extensive cross-cultural and international consulting experience, along with her wide-ranging contacts with Iranian artists, academics, gallery directors, and museum leaders. Ms. Bajoghli has a B.A. in International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies from Wellesley College. She has organized three Iranian film festivals in London and Boston. Ms. Bajoghli also made it possible for photography exhibitions to travel to the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Ms. Bajoghli has worked with filmmakers, visual artists, and musicians in the US, UK and Iran. With Ms. Paydar, Ms. Bajoghli organized exhibitions in Boston (2004) and Washington D.C. (2005) for IAAB's first two International Conferences on the Iranian Diaspora. Ms. Bajoghli, along with Ms. Paydar, is the founder and Executive Director of IAAB.

 

Maryam Ovissi received her Master in Art's Management from Boston University. Her career in the arts began in 1994 with the position of Special Project Researcher for a collection of +10,000 slides bequeathed to the Arthur S. Sackler/Freer Galleries of Art, Smithsonian Institute. In 1996, Maryam founded Evolving Perceptions, the first organization in the United States to create annual exhibition opportunity for Iranian-American artists. Today, Evolving Perceptions, continues to support artists of diverse cultural backgrounds and also offers the only annual scholarship to Iranian-American young emerging artists in the United States. In 1992, with the major support of Chevron, Evolving Perceptions was organized the first exhibition of contemporary Iranian art to travel to the United States from Iran through a collaborative effort with Aria, Nour and Vali art galleries of Tehran, Iran. Maryam opened Gallery Ovissi in Emeryville, California (1998 – 2001) which was dedicated to exhibiting the works of professional Iranian and Arab contemporary artists. Maryam has also been organizing an annual juried exhibition of Young Artists with disabilities for Volkswagen of America, Inc. and VSA arts for the past four years that has debuted at the S. Dillon Ripley Center, Smithsonian Institute. Maryam Ovissi has presented papers on contemporary Iranian art and has articles featured in Eastern Art Report (UK), Bidoun (NYC), IranToday (CA) and www.iranian.com. She also has been featured on television programs on Voice of America, BBC and on Accent by Zohreh Rastegar (DC).

 

Nikoo Paydar is a contractor at the Smithsonian Office of Policy and Analysis. She graduated from Tufts University as a Tisch Citizenship and Public Service Scholar with a BA in Art History in 2004. Ms. Paydar was recognized as an "Onward and Upward" Alumni by the Tufts Daily newspaper. She served as the 2005 Contemporary Curatorial Intern at the Drawing Center in New York City. As a student at Tufts, Ms. Paydar led a conversation group in Shiraz on Iranian and American perceptions of each other and produced a photographic essay on Iranian lifestyle and culture, which was exhibited in Boston (2002) and London (2003). Ms. Paydar studied for one year at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and was a Student Fellow in the Tufts Institute for Leadership and International Perspective (TILIP), a one year program for 26 students from the US, China and Hong Kong. As a TILIP Fellow, she organized an international symposium on China's Foreign Policy at the University of Hong Kong in March 2004. Ms. Paydar currently lives in Washington, DC and, along with Ms. Bajoghli, is a founder of IAAB.

 

Leyla Pope was awarded an M.A. in Film and Anthropology of the Middle East by the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her Master's thesis focused on representation issues in films, looking in depth at women in Iranian cinema. After the 2004 IAAB conference, Ms. Pope was inspired by the universal voice of the art, music and film and the way it moved the audience and transcended language and cultural barriers. Based on this, she proposed to IAAB an exhibition of Iranian contemporary artists from around the world and continues to be a driving force in this project. Ms. Pope has produced and directed two documentaries that were shown at the Best of British Islam Festival in London (2002) and the Bangor Mountain Film Festival (2003). She is also a designer, who has been featured in Intra Magazine (2003) and has worked on independent films on architecture, design and the arts. Ms. Pope holds a B.A. from Cambridge University in Persian and French Literature. She lived in Iran for one year, conducting research on conflicting portrayals of women in Iran. During that time she organized a high-profile joint expedition of British and Iranian women to climb Alam Kuh.

Iran Coordinator

Yasaman Nikzad Rad is an accomplished young artist in Tehran, Iran who has studied the arts and painting for eleven years. Her surrealistic paintings have earned her many awards and she successfully exhibited her work in spring 2004 in Shaghaghi Gallery, Tehran. Ms. Nikzad recently finished her thesis, "Iran's Art from the 1340s to 1360s," which analyzed the influence of modernization on contemporary arts in the country. Her thesis will be published shortly. Ms. Nikzad also co-taught a course with her professor on the history of Iranian art at Azad University. She served as a coordinator of Youth Day, held in Niyavaran Palace (1997), and has organized extensive programs in relation to the arts in universities and galleries around Tehran.

HONORARY COMMITTEE

H.R.H. Princess Wijdan Ali was born in Amman, Jordan where she currently resides. She received her B.A. in History from Beirut College for Women (presently Lebanese American University) in 1961, while studying art privately. She received a Ph.D. in Islamic Art from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 1993. In her art, Dr. Ali develops the traditions of Arabic calligraphy in a modern format which forms part of the contemporary school of Arabic calligraphic painting. Her work, which has won awards in Belgium and France, is found in museums and private collections internationally. Dr. Ali is also founder of the National Gallery and dean of the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Jordan. She has also been a visiting lecturer at the University of Copenhagen, the University of Cyprus, and Agnes Scott College in the US, among many others. Dr. Ali is the author of numerous books on Islamic art and modern Arab art, as well as various published papers and edited works. Among her many awards and recognitions, Dr. Ali was chosen among 100 personalities throughout the world as "Ambassador of the Arts" by World Link Magazine published by the World Economic Forum in Geneva.

Ms. Hengameh Fouladvand is a New York-based artist/scholar and the Executive Director of the Center for Iranian Modern Arts (CIMA), a not-for-profit organization promoting Iranian-American contemporary arts. Ms. Fouladvand received her post-graduate degree from California State University. Shortly after, Ms. Fouladvand held her first solo exhibition in New York in 1986. Her work has been exhibited at Galerie Gora in Montreal, at the Lindenberg Gallery and Columbia University in New York City, the Guild Hall Museum, Hecksher Museum, the Islip McArtur Airport Building, Long Island University, and in many private galleries. Her involvement in CIMA has enabled her to implement stimulating and cutting edge programs targeting young second-generation Iranian-Americans. Her work enables her to build a bridge between the two cultures and emphasize a constant multi-cultural dialogue. Ms. Fouladvand has curated and reviewed visual arts exhibitions as well as organized lectures, workshops, and education seminars related to the arts.

 

Dr. Hamid Keshmirshekan is a Visiting Associate at the Sub-Faculty of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Oriental Institute, Oxford University. He was the organizer of the International Conference on "Contemporary Iranian Art" in Oxford University, July 2005. Dr. Keshmirshekan completed his Post-Doctoral research project entitled,"Reproducing Modernity: The Art of Post-Revolutionary Iran Since the Late 1990s" at Oxford University in 2004-5. He obtained his PhD in History of Art from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 2004; his thesis was entitled: "Contemporary Iranian Art: Neo-traditionalism during the 1960s and 1990s." He received his MFA (Master of Fine Art) in 1994 and his BFA (Bachelor of Fine Art) with 1st Class Honors in 1991 from University of Tehran. His recent publications include: "Neo-calligraphism and its Different Varieties in Modern Iranian Painting," (Eastern Art Journal, Winter 2005); “Discourses on Post-Revolutionary Iranian Art: Neo-traditionalism During the 1990s," (Annual Journal of Muqarnas, Issue 23, 2006); and "Neo-traditionalism and Contemporary Iranian Painting: The Saqq-khaneh School in the 1960s," (Journal of Iranian Studies, No. 38, December 2005). Dr. Keshmirshekan is currently working on the above-mentioned conference book entitled, Modernity and the Iranian Artist as the author/editor. Apart from his academic activities, Dr. Keshmirshekan is an artist as well and has had six solo exhibitions, the latest an exhibition of his prints and paintings at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS in London in 2004.

 

Dr. Olu Oguibe is Associate Professor of Art and African-American Studies at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and a senior fellow of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School, New York. He is also an artist, international curator, theorist, and public intellectual. Having graduated summa cum laude from the University of Nigeria, he received his PhD in Art History from the University of London in 1992 and taught critical theory at Goldsmiths College before moving to the United States. To date Dr. Oguibe's work has been shown in major museums and galleries around the world including the Whitney Museum of American Art; Whitechapel Gallery and the Barbican Center, London; Migros Museum, Zurich; the Irish Museum of Modern Art; Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, among many others; as well as in the Havana, Busan, and Johannesburg biennials, and satellite exhibitions at the Venice biennial. Dr. Oguibe has also served as curator or co-curator for numerous exhibitions, including the 2nd Biennale of Ceramics in Contemporary Art in Genoa and Albisola, Italy in 2003; Vidarte 2002: International Video and Media Art Festival at the Palacio Postal, Mexico City in 2002; Century City at the Tate Modern, London, in 2001; Authentic/Ex-centric: Africa in and out of Africa for the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001, and Five Continents and One City: 3rd International Salon of Painting at the Museo de la Ciudad, Mexico City in 2000. Dr. Oguibe has served as advisor for the Dakar, Johannesburg, and Havana biennials and as critic-in-residence at the Art Omi International artists' residency. His critical and theoretical writings have appeared in several key volumes including The Dictionary of Art, Art History and its Methods, Art in Theory 1900-2000, The Visual Culture Reader, The Third Text Reader on Art and Culture, The Black British Culture and Society Reader, and Theory in Contemporary Art: From 1985 to the Present, as well as numerous serials such as Flash Art, Art Journal, Texte zur Kunst, Zum Thema, Third Text and Criterios. Dr. Oguibe's most recent books include Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to the Marketplace (MIT Press, 2000) and The Culture Game (University of Minnesota Press, 2004).

Dr. Sharon Parker is an Art Historian and Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Design College of Arts and Sciences at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

 

Mr. Sajid Rizvi is the Managing Editor of Eastern Art Report, an international magazine of the arts in London, UK.

 

Mr. Hamid Severi is an Art Historian and Curator of Photography & Video Art. Mr. Severi is both the head of the Research Department and the photography curator at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. He graduated with his M.A. in Art History and B.A. in Studio Art from the University of California, Santa Barbara . Mr. Severi has served as a jury member for various domestic and regional art competitions including the 4th Tehran Sculpture Biennale (2005) and as a member of the policymaking committee for the 9th Tehran Photo Biennale (2004), 3rd New Art Exhibition (Tehran 2004), 2nd New Art Exhibition (Tehran, 2002), and Conference Secretary of the 6th Tehran Painting Biennale (2003). He curated "A Glimpse of Iran; A Selection of Iranian Contemporary Photography," Thessalonica, Greece, 2002;"Persian Silver: Contemporary Photography from Iran," Nash Gallery, Minnesota, 2004;"Beams of Blue: Iranian Video Art," Apeejay Media Gallery, New Delhi, India, 2004; and the upcoming "Persian Vision: Contemporary Photography from Iran." Mr. Severi was born in Sari, Iran.