AFARIN RAHMANIFAR

bio + statement

Afarin Rahmanifar is an award winning Artist, Educator and Curator. She holds an MFA in Painting & Drawing from the University of Connecticut. Her artistic vision originates from intersecting points of Eastern and Western culture. She understands her journey toward her present identity as an Iranian American woman through these concepts: “Separation” from what one has been a part of and “Belonging” to that which is different. “Appearing” then “disappearing” then “reappearing” again. Rahmanifar strives to show the female body as a vessel moving through this journey, taking in new experiences for the mind to process. The intellectual and emotional parts of self are changed through the act of Separation; the changed self belongs both to the past and to the present. In her work, she deconstructs and reconstructs feminine figures or spaces, portraying the female as desiring not just beauty, poetry and seduction, but also desiring, as does the artist herself, to tell her personal stories, which have shaped her life as a woman.

Her work involves collage and painting in mixed media, blending rich imagery and colors with modern approaches and occasionally modern sensibilities.

Rahmanifar blends Persian queens with the Western images of Barbie dolls in renderings that look ancient and modern at the same time.

Ms. Rahmanifar specializes in painting, mixed media, installation, animated motion picture film, and Persian miniature. Her most recent project is titled “Unraveling Stories”. This multi platform project consists of painting, installation, and animated motion picture film.

The foundation of her recent animation film is to integrate the paintings of her female characters into motion and tell stories. The panoramic view of inventive female imagery in the film and the selection of the music reveal the irony reflected in political and cultural norms between Eastern and Western societies.

In 2003, Afarin Rahmanifar’s artistic work was featured on the cover of Eastern Art Report Magazine, in London, England. Her work and artistic life was also featured in a documentary film titled “Where Lies Beauty” produced by Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut and directed by Carina Tautu. Ms. Rahmanifar is currently a Professor of Art at Eastern Connecticut State University, in the department of Fine Arts.

Afarin Rahmanifar’s work has been exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. She has exhibited extensively across the United State, China, India, and Canada. Her exhibitions include Soho 20, Brooklyn, NY, The Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut, La Poisson Rouge, New York City, Benton Museum, Storrs, Connecticut, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Connecticut, Juniata College, Huntington, Pennsylvania, Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, Georga, Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, Florida, Columbia University, New York City, University of California at Berkeley, University of Illinois at Carbondale, Stockton College, Galloway, New Jersey, Framingham State University, Framingham, Massachusetts, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, Gallery Ovissi, Reston, Virginia, Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, New York, Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum, LaGrange, Georgia, Gopalan Gallery, Terre Haute, Indiana and Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts.

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