Location
Nina Ghanbarzadeh’s art practice is rooted in the desire to share her personal experiences and understanding of the culture and history of Iran, where she was born. She often works with geometric patterns, calligraphic letters, clay, and the color turquoise, inspired by their importance in the history of Iranian art. “Living between two cultures (American and Persian)," says Ghanbarzadeh, "I find myself in constant translation. Culture is so much more than language. It is a shared visual sensibility, humor, music, rituals, past times, food, spiritual commonalities, shared history and understanding. I draw inspiration for my art from all of this and from the limitations inherent in language. I search for the universal abstractions of lines, curves, dots that are the building blocks of the symbols that make any language and that help to describe a culture.”
Repetitive, meditative processes are central to Ghanbarzadeh’s process, from drawings made with repeated lines of text to patterns in ceramic tile and collages that resemble mosaic. The complexity and rhythmic power of her work creates a quiet resonance that transcends both pure decoration and literal translation. Ghanbarzadeh continues to introduce different media into her practice, and is creating new work in photography and clay for this exhibition.
The title for this exhibition -- Tales of a Seated Cat -- is inspired by the shape of Iran on the world map.
