Minoosh Zomorodinia

Now Open In the Media Space

Press Release

About “Colonial Walk (21h:9′:3″)” video:
As an immigrant investigating the self in the natural environment, Zomorodinia borrows ritual to picture her dreams. Using walking as medium, and recording her path with an app, she creates a pilgrimage that belongs exclusively to her. Individual videos taken along the route are structured together into moving images within each frame by the use of sophisticated software. The final artwork contains movement within movement, mapping land that does not belong to her, thereby addressing the notion of power and ownership in relation to technology.

Minoosh Zomorodinia
“Colonial Walk (21h:9′:3″)” 2017 Video.
Still from the video

BIO

Minoosh Zomorodinia is an Iranian-born interdisciplinary artist and educator who employs video, photography, installations and performance to make visible for audiences the emotional and psychological reflections of her mind’s eye inspired by nature. Her work exposes and experiments with humanity’s relationship to the natural world. She earned her MFA in new genres from San Francisco Art Institute, and holds a Masters degree in Graphic Design and BA in Photography from Azad University in Tehran. She has been the recipient of several awards and residences such as MFA Fellowship from San Francisco Art Institute, Finalist Tosa Award, Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the Affiliate Program at Headlands Center for the Arts. Her work has been exhibited locally and internationally in Iran, USA, Finland, Romania, South Korea, Canada, England, and Mexico.

ARTIST STATEMENT

An underlying theme in my work is the investigation of the concept of “Self”’ particularly how the “self” relates to the environment. My works are deeply informed by my cultural background, religion, and politics. Borrowing from rituals and nature, sometimes infusing humor, I integrate contradictory concepts in pieces that visualize “Self” struggles. I use the mediums of photography and video to document intuitive moments played out within specific spaces. I make visible to audiences the view in my mind’s eye—reflections of my emotional, psychological, and subconscious experience

CV

Raheleh (Minoosh) Zomorodinia

Education

2015 MFA in New Genres, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA

2013 Multimedia Art Certificate, Berkeley City College, Berkeley, CA

2006 MA in Graphic design, Azad University, Tehran, Iran

1998 BA in Photography, Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Awards, Honors & Residencies

2017 Santa Fe Art Institute Residency, Santa Fe, NM (forthcoming)

Headlands Center for the Arts- The Affiliate Program, Sausalito, CA

I-Park International Artist- in-Residence Program, East Haddam, CT

Finalist Tosa Studio Award, San Francisco, CA

2016 Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA

ACRE ( Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions) , Chicago, IL

Headlands Center for the Arts- The Affiliate Program, Sausalito, CA

Honorable Mention, International Digital AVA Awards

2015 Photography Award, The Earth Speaks , ARTSPACE Gallery, Stroudsburg Pennsylvania

The Headlands Graduate Fellowship Alternate Award, Sausalito, CA

First prize, The Anne Bremer Memorial Library’s Artists’ Book Contest, The Atholl McBean Gallery, San

Francisco, CA

2014 Nominee, Fifth Annual Contemporary Art/ Persbook , Collaboration with Open 5 Group, Tehran, Iran

Rising Leader Award, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA

2013 First Prize group project, P.A.H Film Festival, San Francisco, CA

MFA Fellowship in New Genres, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA

2012 Honorable Mention, 8th Annual CCC Student Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA

Finalist, Eco Art Awards, Collaboration with Open 5 Groups, Online Contest

Solo Exhibitions

2015 Far From Home/Between Heaven and Earth , Gallery Route One, Point Reyes, CA

2014 Cold Medium: A Funeral for Nancy Holt , Incline Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2013 A Journey to a Mysterious Truth , Berkeley Public Library, Berkeley, CA

2010 Impressions , Open Shutter Gallery, Durango, CO

2008 A Way of Living , Atbin Gallery, Tehran, Iran

Collaborations

2017 100 Days Action, Side by Side , Offsite, Collaboration with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, San Francisco , CA

2016 The Ocean After Nature , Yerba buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA

Jess Curtis/Gravity’s Pop Up Performance Project, Sid by Side , Offsite, Collaboration with Zulfikar Ali

Bhutto, San Francisco, CA

2015 Eco Art Matters 10th Anniversary, June Steingart Gallery, Oakland, CA

Pop Up Week, Swell Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2014 BeLong , Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Earth and Time , Iranian Artists Forum, Tehran, Iran, Collaboration with Open 5 Group

Root , Fifth Annual Contemporary Art/ Persbook , Collaboration with Open 5 Group, Elaheh Gallery,

Tehran, Iran

2013 Border lines , Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2012 Without Border , Persbook , Iranian Artists’ Forum, collaboration with Open 5 Group, Tehran, Iran

2011 Iranian Environmental Artists’ Selected Works , Museum of Contemporary Art, Isfahan, Iran, Collaboration

with Open 5 Group

24th INSTANTS VIDEOs , collaboration with Open 5 Group, France

Videoholica Art Festival, collaboration with Open 5 Group, Bulgaria

Autama2011 Video Art Festival, collaboration with Open 5 Group, France

The 1st Recycle art festival, Collaboration with Open5 Group, Qazvin, Iran

2010 Fresh Dig Big Daddy Community Garden , Emeryville, CA

Persbook , First Annual Iranian Contemporary Art Contest, Collaboration with Open 5 Group, Sin Gallery,

Tehran, Iran

The Sky Is Mine , The 6th National Sculpture Biennial of Tehran, Collaboration with Open5 Group,

Niavaran Cultural and Historical Complex, Tehran, Iran

2009 New Art Festival FajrAfarinan , Saba Cultural and Artistic Institute, Collaboration with Open 5 Group,

Tehran, Iran

Selected Group Exhibitions

2017 Everyone is Hypnotized: Artists Dérive the Bay Area , ProArts, Oakland, CA

Nature, or:What Are We Looking For? , Gospel Flat Farm, Bolinas, CA

2016 Alumni Exhibition , Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Common Dilemmas , The Ostrich Feather Wedding Dress Project , Gallery Route One, Point Reyes, CA

Breathing Art, Geumgang Nature Art Biennale, Gongju National Museum, Geumgang, South Korea

Enchantment, Peter Strauss Ranch, Agoura Hills, CA

Eco-Avangard , Kunsthalle Museum, Budapest, Hungary

The Ocean After Nature, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA

Night Light , SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA

The Culture of Peace Biennale International Art Project, Iran and Turkey

Kunsthaus Tacheles, SAFEhouse Arts, San Francisco, CA

Our Many Cultures , Expressions Gallery, Berkeley, CA

Critical Voices , Jerry Adams Gallery, Berkeley, CA

Smaller Footprints, MOAH; Cedar, Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA

Krowsworkerswork+ Dale Hoyt’s FARM World Premiere , Krowswork Gallery, Oakland, CA

Rite of Passage , Islamic Cultural Center Northern California gallery, Oakland, CA

2015 In die Weite , BIK Gallery 149, Bremerhaven, Germany

Living Spaces, Transylvania art center, Santa George, Romania

American Gun Show , Works, San Jose, CA

Perception , Embark Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Selected Video Artists’ Exhibition, LACDA, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles,CA

Edge Effects, MFA Show, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA

4×40 Performances , Southern Exposure, CA

I have nothing to Say, But I’m Saying It , Diego Gallery, San Francisco, CA

You Had to Be There , Swell Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Nietzsche Was A Man , Pori Art Museum, Finland

2014 Expulsion , Asterisk Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Freedom and Enlightenment , Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, Oakland, CA

California Dreamin , Marin Community Foundation, Novato, CA

Hz Gate , The Lab, San Francisco, CA

The Site a Live , Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Dreamworks , Swell Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Nietzsche Was a Man , Malmö,Sweden

2013 Art As Activism , Women Eco Artists Dialog’s Board Member Show, Jerry Adams Gallery, Berkeley, CA

Nietzsche Was a Man , the Museo Ex-Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico City, Mexico

Earth and Time , Iranian Artists Forum, Tehran, Iran

The Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens Exhibit , John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA

Muslim Women’s Arts & Voices , International Museum of Women, San Francisco, CA

2012 Works on Water , Marin Community Foundation, Novato, CA

Beyond Landscape , Marin Community Foundation, Novato, CA

Water Bodies , 4th State of Water, Los Angeles, CA

Nature Is Breathing , YATOO International Project 2012, Rumania

The 1st Video Artist Festival , Blue Room Gallery, Isfahan, Iran

Beyond Limited Spaces , Iranian Nature Artist Exhibition, Geumgang, South Korea

2011 The Altered Landscape , Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV

Iranian Environmental Artists’ Selected Works , Museum of Contemporary Art, Isfahan, Iran

2010 Environmental Art in Iran , Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA

Persbook , First Annual Iranian Contemporary Art Contest, Sin Gallery, Tehran, Iran

A Prayer for Juarez and West Mesa , Albuquerque, NM

2009 Global Warnings Wake Up to Urgent , June Steingart Gallery at Laney College, Oakland, CA

The Youth Competition on Architecture, Settlement and Urban Identity in the Persian Gulf Region ,

University of Westminster, London, UK

Golden Roads Competition, Belgium

First Urban Women Festival , Tehran, Iran

2008 The First International Photography Biennale of the Islamic World , Saba Cultural and Artistic Institute,

Tehran, Iran

Human , Baran Gallery, Tehran, Iran

New Language, New Art , Laleh Gallery, Tehran, Iran

Mahshahr, 5th photo Competition, Tehran, Iran

The Annual Exhibition of Image of The year , Iran Artists Organization, Tehran, Iran

2007 My Green World, Tehran, Tarahan Azad Gallery, Iran

Canadian Association Photographic Art Members , Museum of Contemporary Art, Isfahan, Iran

The National- Religious Rituals for Joy & Happiness, 4th Nationwide Photo Competition, The City

Photography Museum, Tehran, Iran

7 Women 7 Vision , Cafe Mah-e-Mehr, Tehran, Iran

Annual Photography Exhibition , Caroun Photo Club (CPC), 7 Samar gallery, Tehran, Iran

2006 The Annual Exhibition of Image of The year , Iran Artists Organization, Tehran, Iran

Koodak & Manaviyat , Felestin Museum, Tehran, Iran

Teaching Experience

2015- present Adjunct Part-Time Faculty at Peralta Community College, Berkeley City College, Berkeley, CA

2015 Faculty Public Education Program at San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA

2014-2015 Teaching Assistant, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA

2011-2013 Teaching Assistant, Berkeley City College, Berkeley, CA

2004-2006 Photography Instructor, Azad Islamic University, Tehran, Iran

Related Experience

2014-present Documentarian and Archivist, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2015- 2016 Photographer, PhotoAlliance Events, San Francisco, CA

2014-2015 Documentarian and Photographer, Walter and McBean Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2004-2009 Documentarian and Photographer, Paradise Art Center, Polur, Iran

2013-present Board of Director at Ziya Art Center, Berkeley, CA

2012-present Board Member of WEAD, Women Eco Artists Dialog, Oakland,CA

2005-present Member, ” Open 5 ” Group, Environmental Artists, Tehran, Iran

2015 Co-curator, Rite of Passage, ICCNC gallery, Oakland, CA

Co-curator, Rite of Passage, San Francisco City Hall gallery, San Francisco, CA

2013 Co-curator, Art As Activism , Women Environmental Art Directory’s Board Member Show,

Jerry Adams Gallery, Berkeley, CA

Workshops & Symposiums

2016 Bunker Projects , Performance Art Festival, Pittsburgh, PA

San Francisco International Arts Festival , Fort Mason Center for Arts & Cultures, San Francisco,

CA

2015 Water Wheel, Online Exhibition and Forum, curated by Atefeh Khas

2014 Making Connections , Bay-Delta Science Conference, Sacramento, CA

2015-2014 Art in Nature Festival , the Nature of Art, Redwood Regional Park, Oakland, CA

2012-2013 Muslim Women’s Arts & Voices Workshop, International Museum of Women, San Francisco, CA

2011-2012 Bay Area International Children’s Film Festival, Chabot Space & Science Center, Oakland, CA

2010 Art and Nature Workshop, Arboretum Arts Festival, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA

Bibliography

Print Media

Transition , Rabbit Rabbit, Annual Curated Journal of Artists and Innovators, Big Bad Bettie Press, 2016

California Host Environmental Art, Shargh Newspaper, Feb 24, 2016

Elke Prieb, Iranian Women Artists in Bremerhaven , Catalogue of In die Weite Exhibition at BIK Gallery 149,

Bremerhaven, Germany, 2015.

The Petaluma Post, A Reader’s Monthly, Arts , Vol XXX November 2015 No. 346.

Angelica Jardini, Perception , Catalogue of the Exhibition, Embark Gallery, San Francisco, June 12,2015.

Catalogue of the exhibition Nietzsche Was A Man , Pori Art Museum, Finland, 2015

Catalog of the Exhibition, Tehran’s Environmental Art Festival , Collaboration with Open5 Group, 2014

Yatoo-i Calendar 2013, Geumgang, Nature Art Biennale, Arko Center, South Korea

The Altered Landscape , Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, 2011

Stew Mosberg, The Durango Telegraph, The Independent Weekly Line on Durango and Beyond, Jan. 28, 2010

Online Periodicals

Sarah Burke, A ‘Prayformance’ Confronts Islamophobia, Claims Common Ground , KQED, February 16.2017.

https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/02/16/a-prayformance-confronting-islamophobia-stakes-claim-for-common-ground/

Claudia Bauer, Arts Festival Accents the Avant-garde, SFGATE, May 11, 2016

http://m.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Arts-festival-accents-the-avant-garde-7462159.php?cmpid=fb-mobile

U.S., Iranian artists offer interpretations of nature at Oakland exhibition , Tehran Times, Thursday, March 17,

2016.Volume 12516

http://www.tehrantimes.com/news/300098/U-S-Iranian-artists-offer-interpretations-of-nature-at-Oakland

America Host Iranian Artists, ISNA online news, Feb 24, 2016 http://isna.ir/fa/print/94120402665/

`Samina Ali, Bay Area Art Exhibition Showcases Iranian Artists , Review, Senses Cultural, April 14, 2016.

http://sensescultural.org/event/bay-area-art-exhibition-showcases-iranian-artists/

The Object of Guns and the Subject of Violence: The American Gun (Art) Show by Leora Lutz, ArtSlant San

Francisco, January 26, 2016. http://www.artslant.com/sf/articles/show/44992

Sara Hotchkiss, The Terrible Truth about MFA Shows , KQED, May 18, 2015.

http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2015/05/18/highlights-from-the-2015-mfa-shows/

Edge Effect- The 2015 San Francisco Art Institute graduate MFA show, Examiner.com, May 28, 2015.

http://www.examiner.com/article/edge-effect-the-2015-san-francisco-art-institute-graduate-mfa-show

Interview by Hasan Sarbakhshian, Destruction of Nature, Destruction of the Human Being , Tableau Magazine 25

issue, April 30, 2015. https://www.tableaumag.com/7362

Giannina Mura, Video works of 19 Iranian women, Rootlessness from a general human perspective “Nietzsche Was

A Man” , Malmö Konsthall, 10/4 – 15/6 2014. http://manipulatedimage.com/nietzsche/press.html#Sweden

Ditte Vilstrup Holm, Iranian video Artists are Women , Review, May 10, 2014.

http://kunsten.nu/journal/iranske-videokunstnere-er-kvinder/

Atefeh Khas, Environmental Example of Performance in Iran , Tehran Municipality’s Beautification Organization,

January 27, 2014. http://zibasazi.ir/fa/2016-01-26-13-21-45/shahrvandi/item

Nietzsche Was a Man , Museo Ex-Teresa Arte Actual, July 21, 2013.

https://issuu.com/exteresaarteactual/docs/nietzschewasaman_25jun

Author

Ritual and The Feminine , Women Eco Artists Dialog, online Magazine Issue No.8, 2016 ’Feminism Now’.

http://weadartists.org/ritual-and-the-feminine

Iran: A Growing Eco Art Movement, Women Eco Artists Dialog, online Magazine Issue No.2, 2012.

http://weadartists.org/iran-a-growing-eco-art-movement-2

Lectures & Artist talk

2017 Reclaiming Earth Panel , San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA

2016 Nomadic Lands, Ephemeral Bodies: Iranian Land Art , Department of Art & Art History, Stanford

University, Stanford, CA

Investigation of ‘Self’ , the School of Art and Art History at San Jose State University, San Jose, CA

2013 A Journey to a Mysterious Truth , Berkeley Public Library, Berkeley, CA

2011 Environmental Art in Iran , Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV

2010 Environmental Art in Iran , Laney College, EcoArt Matters class, Oakland, CA

Environmental Art in Iran , University of California-Davis, Davis, CA

Environmental Art in Iran , Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA

Environmental Art in Iran , University of Arizona, Albuquerque, NM

Survey of Environmental art in Iran , Open Shutter Gallery, Durango, CO

Avenue 12 Gallery

1101 Lake Street at 12th Avenue

San Francisco CA 94118

415-750-9955