Taraneh Hemami

Taraneh Hemami (born 1960; Persian: ترانه همامی) is an Iranian-born American visual artist, curator, and arts educator based in San Francisco. Her works explore the complex cultural politics of exile through personal and collective, multidisciplinary projects often through site specific installation art or participatory engagement projects.

Biography Taraneh Hemami was born in 1960, in Tehran. She moved to the United States in 1978 to attend college, right before the Iranian Revolution. In 1982, Hemami received her BFA degree in painting and drawing from University of Oregon, Eugene; and in 1991 a MFA degree in painting from California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, where she now teaches. By manipulating common Iranian and Western imagery used to gain power and spread political influence, Hemami's work is a commentary on how this is used across nations throughout history. In her work "Home" (2006), she created a multimedia body of work by collecting photographs and stories from Iranian Americans to explore themes of displacement and representation within a home. Hemami co-curated the 2019 multi-disciplinary group exhibition, Once at Present: Contemporary Art of Bay Area Iranian Diaspora at Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco.

Exhibitions

Hemami has exhibited at national and international venues as well as guest curated exhibitions, including the following: 2002: Hall of Reflections, San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC), San Francisco, California 2003: Hall of Reflections, 6th International Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates 2008: Theory of Survival for BAN 5 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California (guest curation) 2010: Time after Time at Southern Exposure, San Francisco, California (guest curation) 2014: Fabrications, Theory of Survival Project, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, California Creative Work Fund (2000), She has been in residence at the California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS) (2013 – 2014),