Nasim Moghadam
Fabric, 2021
Broken bottles of beer and wine, and still wire
Iranian-born art educator and multidisciplinary visual artist Nasim Moghadam moved to the Bay Area in 2010. Her work focuses on discrimination, hyphenated identity, and the constraints on women, their bodies, and their voices. Moghadam’s work creates narratives inspired by the efforts of women worldwide who are defending their basic, unalienable rights.
Moghadam’s work in this exhibition is made from recycled beer and wine bottles, linked together with wire to form an imposing rectangle. Titled Fabric, the wire and cut shards of glass are imagined in relationship to a body, cloaking or covering like a blanket, suggesting both comfort and danger.
When discussing her artwork and living in the Bay Area, Moghadam mentioned the struggle of studio space and affordability; but for her, the weight of community care is greater than the complications of living here. She has found a welcoming community and feels she wouldn’t be able to express the themes and concepts within her work if it weren’t for having moved to the Bay Area.
Photos courtesy of Henrik Kam.
ARTIST BIO
Nasim Moghadam is an Iranian born art educator and a multidisciplinary visual artist holding an MFA in studio art from San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA in graphic design from Azad University, Central Tehran. Her installations focus on discrimination and hyphenated identity, and the constraints on women, their bodies, and their voices. Using sound, video, photography, and multimedia sculptures of varying scales, and materials that serve as constant physical reminders of femininity, Moghadam creates narratives inspired by the efforts of women worldwide who are defending their basic, unalienable rights. Envisioning another world, an equal world in solidarity, Moghadam celebrates how womxn go beyond cultural and political limitations, rise up, and create a revolution.
Moghadam has received awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, H. A. R. D. Foundation, Outstanding Graduate Award from San Francisco Art Institute, along with residencies at the Cubberley Artist Studio Program, Kala Art Institute, and Building 180. Her works have been published and featured in international festivals including Italy and Japan, and national museums and galleries, such as SFMOMA, San Francisco Art Commission, Museum of Craft and Design, Southern Exposure, Minnesota Street Project, Aggregate Space Gallery, Root Division, Kala Art, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Photo Central, Arion Press, etc. Nasim is an adjunct professor at California College of the Arts and Foothill college.
