Artist Statemenet
Arezoo Bharthania is an Iranian-American multi-disciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, CA. Her works reflects the experience of creating a home while existing in a state of in-between. It is a narrative formed through layers and gestures that blends her childhood and early adulthood in Iran with her current life in Los Angeles. The space she occupies is navigated through the bodily experience of womanhood and a balance of dichotomies: public and private, psychological and physical environments, here and there.
The homes that she has inhabited across geographies represent a multilayered construction of identity influenced by interdependent forces that define roles, govern behaviors, and order power relationships. The Iranian identity she carries in the United States relies heavily on her history as an immigrant. Utilizing her personal history as a filter, her work honors the common experiences and materials of everyday life from which people build a home. This includes personal human experiences of love, work, observation, memory, emotion, sensation, nostalgia and desire; and the universal struggle to pull forth vivid memories that have been reduced to flashing glimpses as time creates distance between past experience and current life.
She makes mixed-media work to communicate, mutate, and abstract layers of memory along with elements of the home with the knowledge that both are inextricable from political and social contexts.
As Gayatri Spivak wrote, using the displacing gesture as a reversal is a way to reclaim the dubious privilege of having a voice. She aims to build a ground from which she can speak.
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Arezoobharthania.com
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Education
2015 MFA in Visual Art, California State University, Long Beach, CA
2012 MA in Painting, California State University, Northridge, CA
2004 BA in Painting, Tehran Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
2023 A Home In the In-Between, Curated by Jason Jenn, LA Artcore Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Escape The Gaze of The Blind Censor, Gatov Gallery, Long Beach, CA
2012 Shed Gallery, California State University, Northridge, CA
2005 The City, Arasbaran Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 Paper Route, Curated by Baha Danesh, Art Share LA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Nomad, Torrance Art Museum sponsored, Torrance, CA
2023 Adaptation, Ruimte Caesuur Gallery, Middleburg, The Netherlands
2023 Dis Connection, Curated by Elana Kundell , Studio Channel Islands Art Center Gallery, Camarillo, CA
2023 Zimmer Frei, Curated by Snezana Petrovic , Wonzimer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2022 Widerhall/Reverberations, BERLIN/LA CONNECT, collaboration with Axel Obiger gallery from Berlin, Durden and Ray, CA
2022 Studio System, Closing reception of Art residency at the Museum, Torrance Art Museum, CA
2022 Media Art Exhibition, jurors Mika Cho, Heather Bowling and Mike Che, MOAH:CEDAR, Lancaster, CA
2022 Supermarket 2022 Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden
2022 Displacement and Resilience, Curated by Elana Kundell, Studio Channel Islands Gallery, Camarillo, CA
2021 Blooming in The Whirlwind, Curated by Arezoo Bharthania, Sean Noyce, and Ismael de Anda III, Collaboration with Level Ground Collective,
Durden and Ray, CA
2021 Wall Hangings, Curated by Tina Linville and Sarah Cabigas, Four Fourteen Gallery, Marysville, CA
2021 Nomad, Pop-up Show, Part of TAM show at Del Amo Crossing, CA
2021 All Media, Curated by Taylor Bythewood-Porter, Irvine Fine Art Center, CA
2020 Archive Machines, Curated by Olivian Cha, Kerstin Erdmann, and Rita Gonzalez, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, CA
2020 Personal Contacts, Durden and Ray, Virtual Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA
2020 Mine and Yours, Curated by Renae Bernard, Virtual Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA
2020 We Are Here, Here We Are, LA county-wide exhibition, Los Angeles, CA
2020 QIPO Fair 2, International contemporary art event organized by QIPO curatorial collective in partnership with Reurbano, Mexico City
2020 How Long Do You Mean To Be, curated by Jennifer Celio, Laundromat Art Space, Miami, FL
2020 Intersections, Durden and Ray Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Through Places, Kamikaze- PØST, MiM Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Outside US, Seaver gallery, Marlborough School, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Dragnet, Durden and Ray, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Mothers, Eggshells, curated by Kim Abeles, Keystone Art Space, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Senses, “Other People” installation, Pacific Court Apartments window display, Long Beach, CA
2017 LAndscape, curated by Rebecca Bennett Duke, Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2017 No Restraint, curated by Kristine Schomaker, Ark Gallery, Altadena, CA
2017 Brand 45 Works on Paper, curated by Leslie Jones, Brand Library, Glendale, CA
2017 Ivanka Loves Refugees, along with Lara Salmon’s performance, Pøst Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Shift and Fade, BLAM Los Angeles, LA, CA
2016 Suites, Groundspace Project, Curated by Susan Joseph, Los Angeles, CA
2015 MASque Attack, Temporary Space, Los Angeles, CA
2015 An Odyssey– 10th Anniversary for TAM, CA
2015 Insight, University Art Museum of Long Beach, CA
2015 MAS Attack 8, San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park, San Diego, CA
2014 MAS Attack 7, Santa Monica Art Studios, Santa Monica, CA
2014 Best of Possible Worlds, curated by Kio Griffith, Art Baboo146, Yokohama, Japan
2014 Park Exhibition Center, Idyllwild, CA
2014 Insight, University Art Museum of Long Beach, CA
2013 Crossing Borders, SOMARTS, San Francisco, CA
2012 CSUN Thesis Show, Main Gallery, CSUN, CA
2012 CSUN Annual Juried Art Student Exhibition, Main Gallery, CSUN, CA
2012 In Search of Clarity: Three Perspectives on Iran, Antelope Valley College, CA
2011 Concealed, West Gallery, California State University, Northridge, CA
2011 CSUN Annual Juried Art Student Exhibition, Main Gallery, CSUN, CA
2010 Inside, West Gallery, Juried by Peter Frank, University Gallery, CSUN, CA
2010 March Madness, Shed gallery, CSUN, CA
2008 The Iranian-American Art Expo, Reseda, CA
2006 Group show, Mehrin Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Two Person Exhibitions
2014 Paneless, Werby Gallery, CSULB, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Desert, Mehrin Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Curatorial Projects
2021 Blooming in The Whirlwind, Curated by Arezoo Bharthania, Sean Noyce, Ismael de Anda III, Collaboration with Level Ground collective, Durden and Ray, CA
2020 Personal Contacts #3, Curated by Arezoo Bharthania, Valerie Wilcox, Alison Woods, Joe Davidson, Durden and Ray, CA
2020 We Are Here, Here We Are, Co-Curated the show, LA county-wide exhibition, CA
2020 Intersections, Curators: Arezoo Bharthania, Gul Cagin, Alanna Marcelletti, Durden and Ray Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Through Places, Curators: Arezoo Bharthania, Diane Williams, Kamikaze- PØST, MiM Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Outside US, Marlborough School, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Making Lightly: A Communal Residency, Atche Art Space, Los Angeles, CA
Residencies
2022 Studio System, Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Making Lightly: A Communal Residency, Atche Art Space, Los Angeles, CA
Awards and Grants
2022 Museum Manager Award, Art Exhibition 2022, MOAH:CEDAR, Lancaster, CA
2021 Vibrant Cities Arts Grants, West Los Angeles, CA
2014 COTA Dean purchase Award, Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Museum, Long Beach, CA
2014 John and Flora Olsen Graduate Scholarship, CSULB, Long Beach, CA
2011 Graduate Association Thesis Support Research award, CSUN, Northridge, CA
Publications
2023 LA Art Documents documantion of “A Home in the In-Between” by LA Art Documents
2023 Displacement, Disconnection & Disruption: Alternate Perceptions of the Diasporic Experiences By Betty Ann Brown
2023 Artist Arezoo Bharthania welcomes Viewers to A Home In the InBetween, Written by Genie Davis, DiversionsLA
2022 https://artandcakela.com/2022/07/27/b-la-connect/, Written by Genie Davis, Art and Cake LA
2021 http://www.diversionsla.com/blooming-in-the-whirlwind-whirls-away/, Written by Genie Davis, DiversionsLA
2020 An Exhibition Across Los Angeles Takes on New Meanings in Times of Protest, written by Jennifer Remenchik, Hyperallergic Magazine
2020 Review: 100 artists come to the rescue with work in public view across L.A., written by Christopher Knight, LA Times
2020 2020 Vision, Written by Genie Davis, Artillery Magazine
2020 Intersection, ArtDaily Magazine
2019 Outside Us, Written by Genie Davis, Artillary Magazine
2018 Making Lightly at Atche Art Space, Written by Genie Davis, Art and Cake
2018 Voyage LA Magazine, Meet with Arezoo Bharthania
2012 Daily Sundial, Cal State Northridge, MFA’s explore culture
Artist Talks, Presentations, Workshops
2021 Curators walk-through: Blooming in The Whirlwind, Curated by Arezoo Bharthania, Sean Noyce, Ismael de Anda III, Collaboration with Level Ground collective, Durden and Ray, CA
2020 Workshop and artist lecture: Los Angeles Municipal Arts Gallery artist talk and workshop
2020 Personal Contacts 3, Durden and Ray, Virtual Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA / Artist talk
2020 Mine and Yours, Curated by Renae Bernard, Virtual Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA / Artist talk
2019 Outside US, Marlborough School, Los Angeles, CA / Artist talk
2016 Shift and Fade, BLAM Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA / Artist talk
2012 In Search of Clarity: Three Perspectives on Iran, Antelope Valley College, CA / Artist talk
Public Collections
COTA, California State University, Long Beach, CA
University Student Union art collection, California State University, Northridge, CA
Teaching Experience
2020 Instructor, Foundation Painting I, LMU, CA
2018 Instructor, Foundation Painting, LMU, CA
2017 Teacher Assistant, Foundation Painting, LMU, CA
2015 Teacher Assistant, Color Crush, Idyllwild Arts Summer Program, CA
2014 Teacher Assistant, Color Theory, California State University, Long Beach, CA
2012 Teacher Assistant, Computer Graphics, LMU, CA