Recording

Abstract

In this virtual conversation held in honor of the forthcoming publication of In Character, Pouya Afshar: Selected Works 2010-2020 (Advocartsy 2021) co-hosts Amy Malek (Center Postdoctoral Research Associate) and Arash Davari (Center Visiting Scholar) moderate a discussion between Iranian American artist Pouya Afshar, editor and curator Arash Saedinia, and contributor and curator Sandra Williams. The conversation includes a discussion of the work presented in In Character, of art and artistic practice in the Iranian diaspora, and of Afshar's new directions through a screening of his latest short film, "La Dolce Vita."

Bios

Born in Tehran, Pouya Afshar emigrated to the United States as a teenager. A graduate of the California Institute of the Arts and UCLA, Afshar's multidisciplinary practice spans drawing, painting, sculpture, animation, comics, and documentary film. His work is in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Afshar is on the faculty at UMass Lowell. In Character, a monograph of his selected works is due in 2021.

Born in Iran and raised in Los Angeles, Arash Saedinia holds a rattlebag of degrees from Berkeley, Northridge and Harvard. A writer, photographer, filmmaker, curator and educator, Saedinia's interests are many and various.

Sandra S. Williams is a PhD student in the History of Art department at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining UM she was an assistant curator in the Art of the Middle East department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where she contributed to exhibitions on both historical Islamic art and contemporary art from the Middle East. She is a founding member and Managing Director of Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online.