SAMAN SAJASI
Artist Bio:
Tehran-born, Providence-based Saman Sajasi lives on the edge of alienation and liberation while balancing two cultures and walking a straight line. Using maps creatively, Saman makes complex and large-scale woodblock prints on silk to investigate mapping, patterning, feminism, and the effects of cultural divide of East and West.
She fights the uncertainties she faces by using maps to remember, in part to keep intact or restore a cultural identity that is threatened by years of separation from her country to which she cannot return to. Much like her current situation in the States, where freedom of movement beyond its borders is impossible.
These maps name and describe places to which Saman can no longer travel. Whether historical or contemporary, she shapes a unique perspective on a location, while using large woodblock patterns to stamp the inside and outside of the created borders. Changing the shape of the maps, adopting the streets, and creating her own lands and seas, she is not a cartographer; she is transgressive, and works towards finding her own voice.
Works and lives in Providence RI
COLLECTIONS
Rhode Island of School of Design Museum, Providence, RI
Private collection of Andrew Raftery, NYC, NY
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2020 Luminous, Boston, MA
2018 The Shapes of Birds: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa, Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI
2018 Un/Settle, RISD Museum, Providence, RI
2018 Command + N, The Fell, Bloomington, IN
2017 Crossing Borders, John Nicholas Center Brown University, Providence, RI
2017 Crossing Borders, Periphery Space Gallery, Pawtucket, RI
2015 G20(Girls), G20 Summit, Istanbul, TRK
2015 G20(Girls), Loominous Gallery, Providence, RI
2013 Undercurrent, David krut Gallery, Chelsea, NY
2013 Graduating Thesis Show, Convention Center, Providence, RI
2013 Out of Print, Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI
2012 Personal Culture, Gelman Gallery, RISD, Providence, RI
2012 Do You Think I Care?, Gelman Gallery, RISD, Providence, RI
2012 Sufi Dancers, Granoff Arts Center, Brown University, Providence, RI
2011 Annual Artist Show, Kala Gallery, Berkeley, CA
2010 Fresh Work, Kala Gallery, Berkeley, CA
2010 Irwin Scholar Exhibition, Sesnon Gallery, UCSC, Santa Cruz, CA
2009 Graduating printmakers, Eduardo Carrillo Gallery, UCSC, Santa Cruz, CA
2007 Scribble, Coda Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
ARTIST TALKS
2018 Artist Talk, RISD Museum, Providence, RI
2018 Rhode Island School of Design Lecture Series, Providence, RI
2018 Artist Talk, John Nicholas Center Brown University, Providence, RI
2017 Artist Talk, Periphery Space Gallery, Pawtucket, RI
2016 Rhode Island School of Design Lecture Series, Providence, RI
2016 UC Santa Cruz, Visiting Arist Lecture Series, Santa Cruz, CA