Shahrzad Exhibition Bridge Obscura: Healing Bonds

Bridge Obscura: Healing Bonds will have an opening reception on Thursday, November 24th, 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Shahrzad Amin will be present for an artist talk, and traditional Iranian foods and tea will be served. 

Multidisciplinary artist Shahrzad Amin is interested in fundamental social issues such as democracy, equality, migration and human rights. The latter scopes inform her art practice that examines diasporic and socio-cultural subjectivities. Through an ethnographic lens, the artist’s sensory filmmaking, architectural design, language and visual art practices are molded. Shahrzad Amin’s artworks highlight the necessity of global connectivity, and a social openness through the element of arch bridges; these eastern architectural features stand as place-making symbols when overcoming cultural distances.

The exhibition leads the viewer’s attention to multiple layers of memory, dreams and time leveraged in the collection through Persian calligraphy, pattern-making, collage and painting. The research that informs these artworks presents a connection between both contemporary and traditional Iranian culture. Despite the political barriers, Shahrzad Amin’s practice connects various aspects of Iranian people’s lives to a global conversation.

Amin obtained a BFA from Tehran University of Art in 2010 and an MFA from OCADU in 2020. Her artwork has been exhibited in Tehran, Florence, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, as well as nationwide exhibits in Canada.

Image: Shahrzad Amin, Healing Bonds, Mixed Media (Acrylic, Color pencil, Soft pastel, Alcohol-based ink, Cement on layers of Chinese rice paper wrapped over the wood panel), 2022