Raheleh "Minoosh" Zomorodinia () is an Iranian-born American interdisciplinary visual artist, curator, and educator. She works in many mediums, including in photography, video, installation, and performance. Her work is informed by the tension between Iran and the United States, as well as explorations of the self, of home, nature, and the environment. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Early life and education

Raheleh Zomorodinia was born in Tehran, Iran. She is a Muslim. Zomorodinia received a BFA degree (1998) in Photography, and a MFA degree (2008) in Graphic Design, both degrees are from Islamic Azad University in

Tehran, Iran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the Capital city, capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is th ...

. She had been a member of the Tehran-based Open Five Group (), an environmental artist collective at the Jehad Daneshgahi School. Zomorodinia

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

from Iran to the United States in 2009. She continued her studies and received an MFA degree (2015) in New Genres from the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

Career

Zomorodinia's work looks at the relationships between nature, land, and technology. She often uses the act of walking as a medium in her artwork, and in some cases she has used tracking apps in order to create abstract shapes such as in the work "Golden Route 5" (2021). She is a member of the Zamin Project, a South/West Asia and North African (SWANA) artist collective.

Artwork

Zomorodinia was one of the twenty female Iranian artists included in the group exhibition, "Nietzsche Was A Man" (2015) curated by Alysse Stepanian and Neda Darzi, at the Pori Art Museum in

Pori ) , website www.pori.fi Pori (; sv, Björneborg ) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäki River, west of Tampere, north of Turku and north-w ...

, Finland. Her work "Between Heaven and Earth" (2015), a video art installation with performance exploring the idea of "self" in a natural landscape, was shown at the

Gallery Route One Gallery Route One is a non-profit arts organization in Point Reyes Station, California. It was founded in 1983 by a group of artists from the area. It is a membership based organization with public outreach, educational, and juried exhibition pr ...

Point Reyes Station Point Reyes Station (formerly, Marin and Olema Station) is a small unincorporated town in western Marin County, California, United States. Point Reyes Station is located south-southeast of Tomales, at an elevation of . Point Reyes Station is loc ...

, California. In 2017, she was part of the inaugural Transform Fest, a performance arts festival held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; other artists included Larry Arrington, Sandra Lawson Ndu, Embodiment Project dance company, Fauxnique (drag name for Monique Jenkinson), Fogbeast dance company, RAWdance dance company, and Jesse Hewit. In her two-channel video, installed artwork "Sensation" (2016–2018), Zomorodinia is standing in nature with a safety blanket blowing in the strong winds. The work was shown in the group exhibition, ''Once at Present: Contemporary Art of Bay Area Iranian Diaspora'' (2019) at the Minnesota Street Project, curated by Kevin B. Chen and Taraneh Hemami.

Curatorial projects

In January 2020, ''Hofreh,'' was curated by Zomorodinia at San Francisco’s Peephole Cinema (at 280 Orange Alley in the Mission District), with six silent films by contemporary Iranian video artists. In 2020, ''Emotional Numbness: The impact of war on the human psyche and ecosystems'' curated by Zomorodinia, was held at Platform 3, Tehran, Iran, with Atefeh Khas. In May to June 2022, ''Between Lands'' exhibition curated by Zomorodinia, was held at Southern Exposure art space in San Francisco, California. In October to December 2023, ''Transcending Physicality: The Essence of Place'' exhibition curated by Zomorodinia, was held at

San Francisco Arts Commission The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy in San Francisco, Cali ...

in San Francisco, California.

Public collections

Zomorodinia's work is part of the public collection at the Nevada Museum of Art.

Awards and honors

Zomorodinia has been awarded many artist-in-residencies, most notably at the Ox-Bow Artists Residency (2018), Djerassi Artists Residency (2016), Recology Artists Residency (2021), Local Language (2021), Lucas Artist Fellow at Montalvo Arts Center (2023–2025), Headlands Center for the Arts (2016–2019), and the Santa Fe Art Institute (2017–2018). Zomorodinia is a 2023 YBCA 100 honoree, awarded by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

References

External links

Official website

Interview with Minoosh Zomorodinia
(2021) {{DEFAULTSORT:Zomorodinia, Minoosh Living people 21st-century Iranian women artists 21st-century American women artists Iranian emigrants to the United States American women installation artists American installation artists American women video artists American video artists Islamic Azad University alumni San Francisco Art Institute alumni Artists from San Francisco Date of birth missing (living people) Muslims from California Environmental artists Year of birth missing (living people)