Taraneh Hemami

Taraneh Hemami is an Iranian-born American visual artist, curator, and arts educator based in San Francisco. Her works explore the complex cultural politics of exile through personal and collective, multidisciplinary projects often through site specific installation art or participatory engagement projects.

Biography

Taraneh Hemami was born in 1960, in Tehran. She moved to the United States in 1978 to attend college, right before the Iranian Revolution. In 1982, Hemami received her BFA degree in painting and drawing from University of Oregon, Eugene; and in 1991 a MFA degree in painting from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, where she now teaches.
Hemami's work is often handcrafted and has included replicating government posters, shattered glass stylized as traditional Muslim prayer rugs, a laser-cut wool carpet map of Tehran and beaded curtains. By manipulating common Iranian and Western imagery used to gain power and spread political influence, Hemami's work is a commentary on how this is used across nations throughout history. In her work "Home", she created a multimedia body of work by collecting photographs and stories from Iranian Americans to explore themes of displacement and representation within a home.
In 2014, Hemami curated Theory of Survival: Fabrications at the Southern Exposure gallery. Hemami co-curated the 2019 multi-disciplinary group exhibition, Once at Present: Contemporary Art of Bay Area Iranian Diaspora at Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco.

Exhibitions

Hemami has exhibited at national and international venues as well as guest curated exhibitions, including the following:

2002: Hall of Reflections, San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC), San Francisco, California
2003: Hall of Reflections, 6th International Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
2008: Evocations, Rose Issa Projects, London, England
2008: Theory of Survival for BAN 5 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California
2008: Theory of Survival for BAN 5 at The Lab, San Francisco, California
2009: One Day: a Collective Narrative of Tehran at Intersection for the Arts
2010: Time after Time at Southern Exposure, San Francisco, California
2011: Zendegi: Twelve Contemporary Iranian Artists, Beirut Exhibition Center, Lebanon
2011: A Dream of Eternity: The Artist Long Time East, Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium
2014: Fabrications, Theory of Survival Project, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, California
2014: Bulletin, Theory of Survival Project, California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), San Francisco, California
2019: Once at Present: Contemporary Art of Bay Area Iranian Diaspora, co-curator alongside Kevin B. Chen, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, California

Collections, residencies and awards

Hemami's works have been collected internationally by major public collections including; the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as many private collections. Hemami received a Creative Capital Award, Eureka fellowship award, Creative Work Fund, the San Francisco Arts Commission, California Council for the Humanities, San Francisco Foundation, and a Visions from the New California award. She has been in residence at the California Institute for Integral Studies , Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Montalvo Arts Center, Kala Art Institute, The Lab and the Center for Public Life at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, California.