Shiva Ahmadi (born 1975;

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: شیوا احمدی) is an Iranian-born American artist, known for her paintings, videos, and installations. Her work has been exhibited at galleries and museums in North America and the Middle East.

Biography

Ahmadi was born in

Tehran, Iran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

in 1975. Her upbringing, which is reflected in her art, was marked by the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

and the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for nearly eight years, unti ...

. She obtained a bachelor of fine art from

Azad University The Islamic Azad University (IAU; , ''Dāneshgāh-e Āzād-e Eslāmi'') is a private university system headquartered in Tehran, Iran. It is one of the largest comprehensive systems of universities in the world. History Headquartered in Tehran, I ...

in 1998 and right after moved to USA to pursue her graduate studies. She attended Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and received a Master of Art Degree in Drawing (2000) and a Master of Fine Arts in Drawing (2003). In 2003, she attended an artist residency at the

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 65 ...

. In 2005, Ahmadi obtained her second MFA, in painting from

Cranbrook Academy of Art The Cranbrook Academy of Art, a graduate school for architecture, art, and design, was founded by George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth in 1932. It is the art school of the Cranbrook Educational Community. Located in Bloomfield Hills, Mi ...

. Ahmadi was appointed as an Associate Professor of Art at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

in 2015.

Career

Ahmadi's practice borrows from the artistic traditions of Iran and the Middle East to critically examine contemporary political tensions. Incorporating cultural symbols Ahmadi has taken a critical look at current social and political issues. Ahmadi works across a variety of media, including watercolor painting, sculpture, and video animation; consistent through her pieces are the ornate patterns and vibrant colors drawn from Persian, Indian and Middle Eastern art. In her carefully illustrated worlds, formal beauty complicates global legacies of violence and oppression. These playful fantasy realms are upon closer inspection macabre theaters of politics and war: watercolor paint bloodies the canvas, and sinister global machinations play out in abstracted landscapes populated by faceless figures and dominated by oil refineries and labyrinthine pipelines. Known for her achievements in painting, her later career has been marked by the use of video-animation. Her first animation Lotus was exhibited extensively in US and around the world and gained recognition from many critics and curators. Her latest animation titled ''Ascend'' (2017) was inspired by the death of Aylan Kurdi and Syrian refugee crisis in 2015. It was acquired by the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Ahmadi's work is included in the collections of the

Museum of Contemporary Art Museum of Contemporary Art (often abbreviated to MCA, MoCA or MOCA) may refer to: Africa * Museum of Contemporary Art (Tangier), Morocco, officially le Galerie d'Art Contemporain Mohamed Drissi Asia East Asia * Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai ...

in Los Angeles, the

Asia Society The Asia Society is a 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States (Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle) and around the world (Hong Ko ...

Museum,

the Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a museum institution located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation ...

, the

DePaul Art Museum Depaul, de Paul or DePaul may refer to: *De Paul (surname) * De Paul College, Eluru, in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, India * DePaul University, in Chicago, Illinois, United States * DePaul College Prep DePaul College Prep is a Vincentian Catholic c ...

, the

Morgan Library & Museum The Morgan Library & Museum (originally known as the Pierpont Morgan Library and colloquially known the Morgan) is a museum and research library in New York City, New York, U.S. Completed in 1906 as the private library of the banker J. P. Morg ...

, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the TDIC Corporate Collection in the United Arab Emirates, and the Farjam Collection in Dubai. Her piece ''Pipes,'' a five-feet wide watercolor, was acquired by the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in 2014. In 2016, she was awarded the Anonymous Was A Woman award. In 2018, Ahmadi was awarded a fellowship at the Civitella Ranieri Art Residency in Umbria, Italy.

Exhibitions

*2024 – ''Strands of Resilience'',

Manetti Shrem Museum Manetti is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Antonio Manetti (1423–1497), Italian mathematician and architect *Domenico Manetti (1609–1663), Italian painter *Giannozzo Manetti (1396–1459), Italian politician and d ...

*2023 – ''Rising Sun'': ''Artists in an Uncertain America'',

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

*2023 – ''Shiva Ahmadi: The Courage of Eve'', Gallery Rosenfeld, London *2023 – ''Shiva Ahmadi: Unbound'', Saint Joseph's Art Society *2022 – ''From Moment to Movement'', Manetti Shrem Museum of Art *2021 – ''Inspirations from the Ancient'', Gallery Rosenfeld, London *2021 – ''With Eyes Opened: Cranbrook Academy of Art Since 1932'', Cranbrook Museum of Art *2021 – ''A Boundless Drop to a Boundless Ocean'',

Orlando Museum of Art The Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) is a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit organization directly serving greater Orlando, Orange County and Central Florida. The museum was founded in 1924 by a group of art enthusiasts. General OMA presents a rotating series ...

, Florida *2020 – ''Unrealism'', Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles *2020 –''The Body Politic'', Haines Gallery *2020 – ''Labyrinths'', Elaine L. Jacob Gallery *2019 – ''Shrine Room Projects'', Rubin Art Museum, New York City *2019 – ''How the Light Gets In'', Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca *2019 – ''Once at Present'', Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco *2018 – ''Revolution Generations'',

Arab Museum of Modern Art Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (متحف : المتحف العربي للفن الحديث) is a museum in Doha, Qatar with over 9,000 objects. Established in 2010, it is considered a major cultural attraction in the country. Mathaf houses ...

, Qatar *2018 – ''Catastrophe and the Power of Art'',

Mori Art Museum The is a contemporary art museum founded by the real estate developer Minoru Mori. It is located in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in the Roppongi Hills complex, a commercial, cultural, and residential mega-complex in Tokyo, Japan. The museum's ...

, Tokyo *2018 – B''urning Song'', Haines Gallery, San Francisco *2018 – ''This Land Is Whose Land?,''

Sun Valley Center For the Arts The Sun Valley Museum of Art (SVMoA) is the oldest arts organization in central Idaho’s Wood River Valley. Founded in 1971 as the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, the museum has grown from a few people presenting classes and events to an organizati ...

, Idaho *2018 – ''Catastrophe and the Power of Art'',

, Tokyo, Japan *2017 – ''Ascend'', Leila Heller Gallery, New York, NY *2017 – ''Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians'' –

Aga Khan Museum The Aga Khan Museum is a museum of Islamic art located at 77 Wynford Drive in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is dedicated to Islamic art and objects, and it houses approximately 1,200 rare objects assembled by Sh ...

, Toronto, Ontario *2016 – ''Global/Local 1960–2015: Six Artists from Iran'' –

Grey Art Gallery The Grey Art Museum, known until 2023 as the Grey Art Gallery, is New York University's fine art museum. As a university art museum, the Grey Art Gallery functions to collect, preserve, study, document, interpret, and exhibit the evidence of h ...

, New York, City *2016 – ''Homeland Security'', For-Site Foundation, San Francisco *2016 – ''Spheres of Suspension'',

Charles B. Wang Center The Charles B. Wang Center, located at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, Stony Brook, New York (state), New York, in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, on Long Island, is a building dedicated to understanding Asian and Ameri ...

, New York, NY *2014 – ''Shiva Ahmadi: In Focus'' –

, New York City *2014 – ''Artist in Exile: Creativity, Activism, and the Diasporic Experience,'' Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery, New York, NY *2013 – ''Apocalyptic Playland'' – Leila Heller Gallery, New York City *2012 – ''The Fertile Crescent'', Rutgers University Museum Exhibition, Newark, NJ *2011 – ''Art X Detroit'',

, Detroit, MI *2010 – ''Shiva Ahmadi: Reinventing the Poetics of Myth'' – Leila Heller Gallery, New York City *2008 – ''Ahmadi and Zhang: Looking Back'', Feldman Gallery, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR. *2005 – ''Oil Crisis'', Leila Heller Gallery, New York, NY

Awards

*2016 –

Anonymous Was A Woman Award The Anonymous Was A Woman Award is a grant program for women artists who are over 40 years of age, in part to counter sexism in the art world. It began in 1996 in direct response to the National Endowment for the Arts' decision to stop funding i ...

*2009 – Kresge Artist Fellowship,

Kresge Foundation The Kresge Foundation is a philanthropic private foundation headquartered in Troy, Michigan, United States. The foundation works to expand opportunities in America's cities through grantmaking and investing in arts and culture, education, enviro ...

*2003 – First Prize
Michigan Fine Arts Competition
*2001 – Thomas C. Rumble University Graduate Fellowship,

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...

References

External links