Please join us in welcoming the founders of Project 13 - An experimental program of virtual art exhibitions initiated by five female Iranian artists based in California. In this conversation, Shaghayegh Cyrous, BSisters, Mobina Nouri, and Mehregan Pezeshki will tell us about the past, present, and future of Project 13.
Shaghayegh Cyrous
is Iranian-American multimedia and social practice artist and curator based in Oakland. She creates poetic installations and interactive performances focusing on cross-cultural communication and translation strategies, addressing predicaments of estrangement and distance caused by political and cultural power dynamics. Cyrous received her BA in Visual Art from Science and Culture University in Tehran and her MFA in Social Practice from California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She has exhibited and performed internationally at venues including Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum in Chicago, British Museum in London, and Anchorage Museum in Alaska.
Cyrous's curatorial and programming passion led her to also work as the Programming Associate at Aggregate Space Gallery in Oakland, researcher and production assistant of Jim Campbell for the Day For Night project at Salesforce Tower, as well as working on many Social Practice projects as Civic and Community Engagement Coordinator at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. She is on the Advisory board of directors of the Clarion Alley Mural Project in San Francisco and has been on the jury panel of several national and international exhibitions and grants, including the California Art Council's Local Impact. Cyrous additionally works as an independent curator in Tehran, London, and the bay area.
BSisters
Behnaz and Baharak Khaleghi are multimedia artists and collaborators originating from Iran who currently live in the Bay Area where Behnaz pursued her MFA at the University of California Berkeley, and Baharak pursued hers at San Jose State University. In their practice, deploying an array of mediums, they seek alternative ways of making feminist art in a Middle Eastern context, usually paying attention to the potentials of humor and pleasure while simultaneously embracing the aesthetics of disgust and push against taste to develop new categories for beauty; what is pleasurable and libidinous for women as defined by women, offensive to male taste and its ownership.
Behnaz's work has been acclaimed and chosen among Bay Area emerging artists as part of the Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Awards program and has been exhibited in spaces such as the De Young Museum and the Berkeley Art Museum. Baharak's work has been exhibited in spaces such as the De Young Museum and Root Division Gallery in San Francisco.
Mobina Nouri
Mobina Nouri is an Iranian Multi-disciplinary artist based in San Francisco whose practice reflects her personal history as a female immigrant. Nouri received her BA in Performance art and MA in Art and Design from Tehran Art University, Iran and her PhD in Creativity from City University London, UK. Working across a variety of media, the artist mines her country’s tradition of storytelling, often turning to Persia’s philosophies and mysticism to contemplate and reconsider the complexities which she bears witness to in the contemporary moment. Explorations of the body, the self, gender, unity and collective approaches are central to her practice which she approaches through a reimagining of linguistic and social schemas.
Mobina has exhibited internationally across a range of group exhibitions in Iran, United Kingdom and the United States. Her work is included in private collections and recently exhibited in de Young Museum San Francisco, and has been featured in local and international publications. Nouri received 2020 special mention artists from MOZAIK Future art award, 2020 Juror’s Choice in “Art Saves Humanity” Competition Including Jerry Saltz, Marine Tanguy, Christine Cuan and Poppy Simpson and 2019 Juror’s choice, San Francisco Women Artists Gallery. She is one of the five female founders of Project13 Exhibition.
Mehregan Pezeshki
Mehregan Pezeshki is an Iranian-American multidisciplinary artist based in the United State who concentrates mostly on photography, video and performance art. Her artwork is often autobiographical, unraveling the traumatic memories of her youth while growing up as a free spirited young girl in the socially restrictive Islamic Republic of Iran.
Pezeshki uses photography to uncover hidden behavior, privacy and deeply rooted traditions, which affect our daily lives. She asks us to consider the ramifications of our innermost desires and invites the audience to rethink how they interact with others. She employs an unconventional angle that challenges the viewer to step out of his/her comfort zone and observe human behaviors from a new perspective.
Pezeshki holds a Bachelor of Arts in Historical Conservation and Preservation from the Cultural Heritage University of Tehran and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin. She currently continuing her MFA at California Institutes of The Arts.