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Sepideh Mehraban
Recent Monotypes, 2020Carpets are objects that embody and convey personal stories, they are symbols of the private and intimate that carry the stains of use. The damage and destruction of history - and our ability to prevail - are contained and represented by these beautiful artefacts.
Sepideh Mehraban is an Iranian-born artist, working and living in Cape Town. Her work explores memory and landscape, looking at the overlaying and veiling of paint as a means of expressing layers of existence and experience. She was born in Tehran and obtained her BA (2009) and MA (2011) from Alzahra University (Tehran- Iran).
In 2012, Mehraban worked on and was awarded a postgraduate diploma in Fine Art at Michaelis School of Fine Art (Cape Town, South Africa) and has since also completed a second masters degree with distinction there. She has worked as a set designer and collaborated on puppeteering projects. Mehraban also has worked as a lecturer at Michaelis School of Fine Art and University of Stellenbosch. She is a PhD candidate currently at the University of Stellenbosch.
In her academic work, as well as in her personal projects there is sensitivity toward recent history in Post-Apartheid South Africa and Post-Revolutionary Iran, which she incorporates and explores through text, figurative works and abstraction, often drawing on the grid format of newspaper as a source of inspiration. Mehraban has invited 19 artists in 2018 from South Africa and Iran to respond to social political turmoil in Post-Apartheid South Africa and Post-Revolutionary Iran in their work and curated an exhibition titled Cape to Tehran: Re-imaging and re-imagining personal history in post-Apartheid South Africa and post-revolutionary Iran at Gallery MOMO in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Mehraban first solo exhibition was titled Retracing Memories at Golestan gallery in Tehran (2015). In November 2019 she had her second solo exhibition at SMITH gallery in Cape Town titled Until The Lions Have Their Own Historians, The History Of The Hunt Will Always Glorify The Hunter. The selection of recent group shows and art fairs she has participated includes: 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair (London,2019), The Female Line, Smac gallery (Cape Town, 2019), Unresolved Category, Gallery MOMO (Cape Town 2019), The Main Complaint at Zeitz MOCAA (Museum of contemporary Art in Cape Town, 2019), Monochrome at Barnard gallery (Cape Town, 2019), Rendezvous at Smith gallery (Cape Town, 2019), Cape to Tehran at gallery MOMO (Cape Town and Johannesburg, 2018), Close Encounters at Smith Gallery (Cape Town, 2018), SS17 at gallery MOMO (Cape Town, 2017), Distill Motion at Smith gallery (Cape Town, 2017), A Painting Today at Stevenson gallery (Cape Town, 2017), Art Meets Camera: Closer than ever curated by Michaela Limberis at gallery MOMO (Cape Town, 2017), Charting curated by Andrew Lamprecht at Eclectica Contemporary gallery (Cape Town, 2016), Imago Mundi at Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Venice,2015). Her works are part of different private and public collections including : Alzahra University (Tehran), University of Cape Town, Spier Art’s Trust (Cape Town) and Thulamela Chambers (Johannesburg) and Luciano Benetton Collection.
In 2012, Mehraban worked on and was awarded a postgraduate diploma in Fine Art at Michaelis School of Fine Art (Cape Town, South Africa) and has since also completed a second masters degree with distinction there. She has worked as a set designer and collaborated on puppeteering projects. Mehraban also has worked as a lecturer at Michaelis School of Fine Art and University of Stellenbosch. She is a PhD candidate currently at the University of Stellenbosch.
In her academic work, as well as in her personal projects there is sensitivity toward recent history in Post-Apartheid South Africa and Post-Revolutionary Iran, which she incorporates and explores through text, figurative works and abstraction, often drawing on the grid format of newspaper as a source of inspiration. Mehraban has invited 19 artists in 2018 from South Africa and Iran to respond to social political turmoil in Post-Apartheid South Africa and Post-Revolutionary Iran in their work and curated an exhibition titled Cape to Tehran: Re-imaging and re-imagining personal history in post-Apartheid South Africa and post-revolutionary Iran at Gallery MOMO in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Mehraban first solo exhibition was titled Retracing Memories at Golestan gallery in Tehran (2015). In November 2019 she had her second solo exhibition at SMITH gallery in Cape Town titled Until The Lions Have Their Own Historians, The History Of The Hunt Will Always Glorify The Hunter. The selection of recent group shows and art fairs she has participated includes: 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair (London,2019), The Female Line, Smac gallery (Cape Town, 2019), Unresolved Category, Gallery MOMO (Cape Town 2019), The Main Complaint at Zeitz MOCAA (Museum of contemporary Art in Cape Town, 2019), Monochrome at Barnard gallery (Cape Town, 2019), Rendezvous at Smith gallery (Cape Town, 2019), Cape to Tehran at gallery MOMO (Cape Town and Johannesburg, 2018), Close Encounters at Smith Gallery (Cape Town, 2018), SS17 at gallery MOMO (Cape Town, 2017), Distill Motion at Smith gallery (Cape Town, 2017), A Painting Today at Stevenson gallery (Cape Town, 2017), Art Meets Camera: Closer than ever curated by Michaela Limberis at gallery MOMO (Cape Town, 2017), Charting curated by Andrew Lamprecht at Eclectica Contemporary gallery (Cape Town, 2016), Imago Mundi at Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Venice,2015). Her works are part of different private and public collections including : Alzahra University (Tehran), University of Cape Town, Spier Art’s Trust (Cape Town) and Thulamela Chambers (Johannesburg) and Luciano Benetton Collection.
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