Morono Kiang Gallery is pleased to present its forthcoming exhibition, Traces of Being: Iran in the Passage of Memories, curated by Shervin Shahbazi.

Traces of Being: Iran in the Passage of Memories explores the primacy of personal memory against a backdrop of divergent cultural experiences and collective histories. The exhibition will feature new mixed media and installation-based works created exclusively for this project.

Viewers are invited to participate by contributing their own ephemera–written accounts, objects, or images–to an interactive timeline of Iran's contemporary history between the years of 1979-2009.

Curator Shervin Shahbazi asked the participating artists to “create work based on their personal memories of Iran–or lack thereof—and, in the process, reflect on two different memories: One they would like to save and one they wish to delete even though purposeful forgetting is humanly impossible”.

This premise presents a challenge that only the individual can resolve, be it the artist or the viewer. These memories capture more than moments in time—they bear witness to unprecedented change and inspire new interpretations of the past, which, in the end, create Traces of Being.

Featured Artists:

Pantea Karimi
Karimi has lived, studied and worked in Iran, England and the United States. She received her Masters in graphic design from Tehran Art University in 1999, and BTEC Diploma in printmaking from Hastings College of Arts and Technology in England in 2004. She earned a MFA in Printmaking and Painting at San Jose State University, California this past spring.

Amitis Motevalli
Born in Tehran, Motevalli moved to the US in 1977. In 1995 she received a BA from SFSU in Art with a minor in Women’s studies and in 1998 an MFA from Claremont Graduate University. She is the recipient of the California Community Foundation Fellowship, the James Irvine Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Arts/Warhol Foundation Artist Fellowship. As an art educator at the William Grant Still Art Center, she works to create social change with her students on issues of civil rights through pedagogy.

Fereshteh Toosi
Toosi received a BA from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1998 and worked in Japan under the Shansi Memorial Association Fellowship from 1998-2000 before completing her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2004. Toosi participated in artist residency programs in New York, Chicago, and Virginia. She has taught art at Saint Mary’s College of Maryland and served as Faculty Fellow in Arts and Civic Engagement at Syracuse University. Toosi currently lectures in the New Millennium Studies program at Columbia College Chicago.

Hushidar Mortezaie
Self-taught and driven by an obsession for popular culture, glamour, and subversion, Hushidar Mortezaie merges contradictory realities into singular creations. Iranian-born "Hushi" uses the opposing facets of pop culture and surroundings as the base for his artistic medium. Hushi was discovered by Patricia Field and became her buyer and stylist in NYC at her synonymous boutique. His past pastiches in presentations include Iranian militant glamazons merged with romantic Persian miniatures ushering in the now popular use of Farsi calligraphy on clothing.
His creations have received critical recognition, photographed by Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, Steven Klein, and David La Chappelle and featured in such publications as Italian Vogue, W magazine, and the NY times.

Shervin Shahbazi
As a Los Angeles-based curator and arts professional, Shahbazi curated the first Long Beach Art Walk in 1998, as well as LA 225, an exhibition commemorating the City's 225th birthday at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument. Shahbazi is the recipient of public art commissions by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and Los Angeles World Airports to curate exhibitions of contemporary LA-based artists at Los Angeles International Airport. In addition to his extensive portfolio of exhibitions, he has worked at the Museum of Latin American Art, the Bowers Museum, and Self-Help Graphics & Art, and served as grant review panelist for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

In other news :                      
Future programs include a panel discussion with the artists on October 17th, and a sneak peek of Robert Adanto’s new documentary film Pearls on the Ocean Floor about contemporary women artists from Iran on November 7th. 

An illustrated catalogue for the exhibition will be available in October. 

Shervin Shahbazi is also the curator of "From the Streets of Iran: Works on Paper by Urban Artists in Iran" at Crewest Gallery, on view September 10 - 27, 2009.