RAIR | 2025-26
Farnaz Shadravan
Farnaz Shadravan in her RAiR Studio, 2025.
Farnaz Shadravan left her country, Iran, during the 1979 revolution. Universal social injustice and human conditions are the recurring themes in her work. Her wide range of art education allows her to use different techniques and mediums to create one-of-a-kind pieces. Her early pieces were created using a dental handpiece (she used to practice dentistry) and her recent works employ woodworking and embroidery. In 2002, she founded the first artist-run exhibition space in San Francisco and in 2011 she opened another art space in Oakland. She maintains a studio in Vallejo, CA, and one in Tehran-Iran.
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My father was an artist and encouraged me to become one, my mother wanted me to choose a more secure profession. That is the reason I ended up in dental school after finishing art school. After years of juggling these two professions, I finally left the financial security of dentistry for Art.
This shift in my life forced me to leave my 2000 square feet studio for a much smaller one.
Next, I took a trip to Iran to set up a second studio there.
First night in Tehran; there I was in an old house in a country that was now foreign to me. All I had were closets filled with old clothes. For tools; a pair of scissors, embroidery flosses, and a sewing needle.
“I will turn all these clothes into works of art,” I thought.
First, the wedding dress that I had sewn myself, I covered it with French knots “Tying the knots”.
“Gate of Eden” my sister’s favorite dress. The name came from the book she wrote before she passed away from cancer.
“Until We Meet Again” a composite of my childhood dress and that of my sister’s.
“Indivisible” Random fabrics from different clothes.
A new chapter in my art practice began. Like a human being, a work of art needs to have three elements: skeleton, skin, and pulse.
I used wood for the skeleton. The fabric became the skin. Juxtaposing different stitches and colors gave me the pulse.
Used materials hold the energy of their past experiences, unleashing that energy causes pain but that’s a small price to pay when you see the effect.
In the past I would get compliments, now the viewers thank me wholeheartedly as if they had received something valuable.
Tying the Knots, 2021, fabric from my wedding dress, human hair, embroidery floss, aluminum, 165 x 27 in.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - rearranging my furniture series, 2018, my wooden drawer, 8 x 36 x 45 in.
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 2014, engraved porcelain bathtub, 14 x 30 x 60 in.
Until We Meet Again, 2022, my childhood dress & my deceased sister’s sweater, plexiglass, embroidery floss, 40 x 35 in.
Indivisible, 2023, Fabric, wood, human hair, embroidery floss, ceramic, 49 x 50 in.
Saint Michael Killing the Dragon, 2014, engraved porcelain bathtub, 14 x 30 x 60 in.
Falling Faster Than Autumn - The Past Would Always Be Present Series, 2023, wood, fabric, embroidery floss, human hair, 16 x 18 in. each