Contributed by Sharon Butler / From May 4 -10, after a two-year Covid hiatus, the Two Coats of Paint Residency Program returns with Iranian American artist Afarin Rahmanifar. Born in Tehran and based in Connecticut, Afarin explores the points where Eastern and Western culture intersect. “My work is bound by my experience of living in exile from Tehran, the city where I grew up, in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution.” she says. “My interests have always been the stories of women in relation to politics, culture, religion, and sexuality within repressed societies. Regardless of how far an artist is removed and apart from her homeland, politics becomes part of her artistic life. The terrifying feeling of censorship has always cast a shadow over my artistic work. But my protagonist figures ignore these distractions and continue to appear and reappear in my imagery.”
Her practice comprises painting, mixed media, installation, printmaking, animated motion picture film, and Persian miniature. On Dumbo First Thursday, May 5 from 6-8 pm, we will open the Two Coats Residency space at 55 Washington Street, #454, Brooklyn, to the community. Please join us in welcoming our visiting artist to New York.
She has exhibited widely, including in shows at Towson University, Towson, MD; SOHO20, Brooklyn, NY; The Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT; Columbia University, New York, NY; La Poisson Rouge, New York, NY; Benton Museum, Storrs, CT; Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT; Yale University, New Haven, CT; University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA; University of Illinois, Carbondal, IL; Framingham State College, Framingham, MA; Boston University Boston, MA.
She holds her Master of Fine Arts degree from University of Connecticut and is currently Associate Professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, Art & Art History Department, in Willimantic.
About the Two Coats of Paint Residency Program: The program’s goal is simply to provide a short-term space (up to one week) where artists based outside the NYC area can hang work and have studio visits with curators, other artists, and gallerists. For the time being, because space is extremely limited, the residency is by nomination and invitation only. In the fall, we will be welcoming painter Deborah Zlotsky.
I am so pleased to see where Afarin’s work has gone!