News

Holiday Pop-Up Sale December 6-8, 2019 12-5pm

Artists’ Annual Exhibition 2019-2020 at Kala Art institute December 5th 6-8:3pm 

Memory Walkshop led by Arthur Huang hosted byThe Walk Discourse 

Sunday, November 10 at 2pm

Screening GOLDEN at Artists Television Access in San Francisco, October 19th, 2019 5-6pm

Performacne at Shapeshifter Cinema October 13, 2019 7-9pm

Art Auction at Root Division Oct 24th, 2019

Artful Harvest at Djerassi Resident Artists program, Sunday Oct 13, 2019

4Waves: 40 Performances for the Hole September 11, 2019- 6-10pm

SOMArts and Justin Hoover/Collective Action Studio (CAS) are proud to co-present a new iteration of 100 Performance for the Hole: a marathon of artistic moments. In honor of the 40th anniversary of SOMArts Cultural Center, CAS is producing an abbreviated version titled 4Waves: 40 Performances for the Hole on Wednesday, September 11th, 5:58–10:00pm with Rhodessa Jones as a special program presenter and Justin Hoover as the evening’s emcee.

FEATURED ARTISTS: Alexandrea Echo Archuleta. Adrian Arias, Tierra Allen, Monet Clark, Maxe Crandall and Diana Cage, Mike Dingle, Shaghayegh Cyrous, Jordan Essoe, deCoy Gallerina, Guta Galli, Terrance Graven, Reshawn Goods / Bushmama, Africa, Keith Hennessy, Jesse Hewit / Juice Box, Dale Hoyt, Pete Ippel, Behnaz Khaleghi, Marcus Kuliand-Nazario, Landa Lakes, Peter Max Lawrence, Krisztina Lazar, Jennifer Locke, Margaret McCarthy, Liz Miller-Kovacs, Midori, Logan Moody & Chris Sauceda, Caro Novella, Ramekon O’Arwisters, Johanna Poethig, Randy Reyes, Kevin Seaman, Chris Sollars, Lauren Jade Szabo. Janet Silk, T_Shell, The Factronauts (Peter Foucault, Bryan and Vita Hewitt, Chris Treggiari), Shirin Towfiq, Chaz Walker, Rachel Znerold, Raheleh Minoosh Zomorodinia

Make Room for Me at Little Berlin, June 8, 2019 12-4pm

Make Room For Me is an exhibition showcasing the work of femme and queer-identifying artists with origins in the Middle and Near East. Consisting of all new media works, each artist manipulates space or the body, including its parts, routines, movements, and absence, as a form of expressing identity and heritage. Their manipulation of space and form in their practice serves as a radical act to carve out representation for a subject position commonly misunderstood and underrepresented. Make Room For Me is curated by Little Berlin member, Sarah Trad.

Artist Talk at The Painting Salon at Wolfman Books 7-10pm

VIRTUAL LAND – PERFORMANCE AND ARTIST TALK  at KALA Art Gallery in Berkeley Saturday April 27th 7-9pm 

Over the past 3 years Minoosh Zomorodinia has walked in different environments and documented her explorations on the land. While recording the routes of her walks on the land that doesn’t belong to her, she tries to own the land virtually using her cell phone app. Then she turns the paths to 3D objects as if they are imaginary homes, and uses the negative spaces from the routes to create her own territory.

Virtual Land questions what it means for an immigrant and for a citizen to connect with their environment. In her performance she invites audiences to walk in the space, play a game, and make their own territory.

The BodyWalk, SFAC Main Gallery, February 23, 2019 from 2-4pm Walkshop #14

The Body Walk, developed by collaborating artists Minoosh Zomorodinia and Astrid Kaemmerling, invites participants to spend time to analyze the role of the moving body in space in San Francisco’s Civic Center neighborhood. Through playful activities, artists and participants will use their own bodies to navigate local places of inclusion and exclusion, and interact with places such as the Veteran’s Building, City Hall, the UN Plaza and the Public Library. This walk is aimed to help us grapple with the question where we belong and how our bodies can (pre)define belonging.

Part and Parcel, San Francisco Art Commisions, January 25th, 2018 6-8pm

The SFAC Galleries is pleased to present Part and Parcel, guest curated by renowned local artist, curator and educator Taraneh Hemami. As a member of the Iranian diaspora, Hemami was interested in fostering an exhibition that would take a look at geographies of belonging. What does it mean to belong? How do specific places affect our ability to be included or excluded from belonging? And how does one negotiate identity in a new space when dislocated from self-defining cultural, political, geographical, or social aspects from another? What role do desires to fit in and/or resist assimilation have in belonging?

The four featured artists, Tannaz Farsi, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Sahar Khoury, and Minoosh Zomorodinia examine crossings and becomings, systems and processes, nature and language, time and histories, and remnants of the everyday, in their multidisciplinary projects.

One Night Performance WanderWoman Curated by Rea Lynn de Guzman- Root Division, FEBRUARY 9, 2019 7-10pm 

ONE NIGHT EVENT accompanying the exhibition, Wander Woman on view January 9 – February 9, 2019.

This one night only evening of performance compliments the visual art exhibition, Wander Woman. Performance offers a unique communication tool and physical manifestation of the immigrant womxn body experience. Ranging from participatory to literary to collaborative, performances will offer a multitude of perspectives on the experience of immigration to the Bay Area, specifically addressing issues of misrepresentation, stereotypes, cultural conflict, as well as feelings of both acceptance and intolerance.

In tandem with the exhibiting artwork, this evening of performance intends to transcend geographic boundaries by offering a variety of perspectives through diverse movement of how the body remains strong, resilient and individual despite outside forces and stigmas trying to strip the body down or push it to the margins.

“ALCHEMY”, Curated by Anza Jarschke, Sierra Nevada College, JANUARY 2 – FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Archaic alchemy aimed to create value out of the valueless through a seemingly magical process of transformation and creation. Today our alchemical magicians are artists. They combine disparate objects, materials, and thoughts to create something that didn’t exist before. This group exhibition is a subversive cabinet of curiosities for these contemporary alchemists to share their synergy with us. All that glitters may very well be gold!

Artist Talk: 5:30 pm

Outsid In Curated by Sarah Klein at Peephole Cinema, San Francisco, January 8, 2019 – March 9, 2019

Work by Stacey Goodman, Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson and Minoosh Zomorodinia. Curated by Sarah Klein The Peephole Cinema is pleased to present Outside In a collection of three works of somatic experience of outer and inner landscapes. The show will screen 24/7 through a dime-sized peephole on Orange Alley in the Mission Districts. Presented in partnership with Intersection for the Arts as part of the Intersect SF series.

FORMS AND FIGURES at ECHO PARK FILM CENTER, Los Angeles, FRIDAY, JAN 25 8pm

Airplane Mode (performance meets tech duo Suzy Kohane and Mitsu Hadeishi) will be presenting (working title) “How to Wind a Watch”, followed by a performance by the stunning and incomparable Alexandra Tatarsky. The event will also include virtual reality, a living art installation, experimental video, video installations, and visual art. The show is free to the public, but voluntary donations will be accepted for the performances.

ARTISTS

Michael Betancourt, Blanka Amezkua, Sofía Córdova, Cuntemporary Artists Presents, Robert Ladislas Derr, Kayla Farrish, Catherine Feliz, Bonella Holloway, Suzy Kohane, Marguerite Kalhor, Laura Hyunjhee Kim, Jeremy Moss, Nazrinka Musikova, Eugenia Pigassiou, Dayana Ruiz, Derek Taylor, Amy Tenenouser, Leila Weefur, Katie Williams, Minoosh Zomorodinia

California Walkscapes– Incline Gallery– October 5th, 2018- 6-9pm

Artists: Liat Berdugo, Mary Campbell, Gina Chiao,Rebekah Dean,Leeza Doreian, Laura Elayne Miller, Olga Evanusa-Rowland, Emily Gui, Susanne Huth, Carey Lin & Gabriel Gilder, Erica Molesworth, Kelley O’Leary, Daniel Southard, Chris Thorson, Kevin Welch, Michal Wisniowski, Minoosh Zomorrodinia

When we walk our bodies get exposed to innumerous stimuli. Supported by our senses, we enter a field that requires us to constantly adapt to the changing environment and generate meaning that allows us to create knowledge needed to continue traversing streets, alleys, roads, and other passageways opening up in front of us. Whether in a city or rural landscape, through the act of walking, the physical, topographical and socio cultural layout of the environment we live in is understood experientially. Inspired by Francesco Careri’s publication Walkscapes this exhibit asks what information can we unearth about the California landscape through the act of  walking? California Walkscapes showcase artists from all genres who respond to walking from a number of different perspectives – for example, considering walking in the context of the body, urbanity, place and migration. Be ready for a mixed-media exhibition encompassing the genres of visual, performance, video, installation, and sound art. Stay connected for upcoming walkshops that will be integrated into the programming throughout the duration of the exhibition.

10th Anniversary Passport Exhibition -SFAC October 21st, 2018

The Walk Discourse at Flux Factory

Artful Harvest October 7, 2018

A SHIP IN THE WOODS MUSIC & ART FESTIVAL –Saturday June 16, 2018

Santa Fe Art Institue –Tuesday, May 22 at 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

SFAI Equal Justice Residents, Sara Madandar and Minoosh Zomorodinia, are US-based artists from Iran. They will perform a participatory piece on May 22nd at 6:30pm at SFAI. 

Sara Madandar will perform My Body Is My Home. This will be an hour and a half long presentation, Sara will perform for 15 minutes while also allowing space for the audience to engage in the overall presentation.

Memorial Lands is a participatory performance piece. Minoosh Zomorodinia as an immigrant looking for home by walking in different places. She takes maps of her walks around SFAI and creates a new place inside the gallery and marks the land by flags made of different materials. By using technology Minoosh Zomorodinia challenges notions of power and ownership— our ownership of technology and of the land itself. Audience are invited to join her and mark the land to create a territory by flags.

Imagining Sanctuary, Saturday March 31- April 21, 2018

Solo show by IC3 Artist-in-Residence Minoosh Zomorrodinia

 Minoosh Zomorrodinia’s solo exhibition at ICCNC takes up the theme of sanctuary. This show —featuring video installations, sculpture and performances—demands that viewers ask themselves questions about who or what deserves sanctuary in our troubled times: endangered flora and fauna, refugees, the unhoused, women survivors, indigenous people? Where can any of them find real sanctuary, in the Bay Area or anywhere else in our present time and place? The exhibition challenges one’s own powers of observation.

Minoosh Zomorodinia is an observant Muslim artist of Iranian descent, and her exhibition at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California takes up the theme of sanctuary. This show —featuring video installations, sculpture and performances—demands that viewers ask themselves questions about who or what deserves sanctuary in our troubled times: endangered flora and fauna, refugees, the unhoused, women survivors, indigenous people? Where can any of them find real sanctuary, in the Bay Area or anywhere else in our present time and place? The exhibition challenges one’s own powers of observation.

Curatorial direction/writing by Thea Quiray Tagle, PhD

Desire Trails at Headlands Center for the Arts

The CloudWalk with Minoosh Zomorodinia and Astrid Kaemmerling

The CloudWalk is a performative walk through the landscape of the Marin Headlands. Together with the artists, participants are invited to think about our changing relationship to clouds as we transition between landscapes and technoscapes. Historically, clouds have provided water and were a symbol of air, and more recently clouds have come to symbolize data transfer and global knowledge streams. Chase clouds together and elaborate on their role in the natural landscape and our daily lives. Be prepared to become clouds yourselves and to transition between discussions about the natural environment and the landscape of data flows while connecting together in meaningful new ways.

A New Type of Flâneur Strolls in Search of Humanit by Erin Langner

Colonial Walk Curated by Thea Quiray Tagle- January 27th, 2018- March 10th, 2018

Feast Arts Center (Tacoma, WA) and independent curator Thea Quiray Tagle present Minoosh Zomorodinia: Colonial Walk, an interdisciplinary art project that runs from January 27-March 10, 2018. The project is comprised of a gallery exhibition of Zomorodinia’s multimedia installation “Colonial Walk,” in addition to prints and sculptures from the larger series.

Earth Body Curated by Sidney Bacon Russell- October 27, 2017

OOBLECK PRESENTS:
EARTH-BODY

a group exhibition featuring: Nancy Beckman, Rachael Cleveland, Mercedes Dorame, Emma Lanier, Cheryl Leonard, Ashley May, Sophia Shen, Jacqueline Sherlock Norheim, Hannah Perrine Mode, and Minoosh Zomorodinia

Colonial Walk (21h:9′:3″) at Avenue 12 Gallery

About Colonial Walk:

As an immigrant investigating the self in the natural environment, Zomorodinia borrows ritual to picture her dreams. Using walking as medium, and recording her path with an app, she creates a pilgrimage that belongs exclusively to her. Individual videos taken along the route are structured together into moving images within each frame by the use of sophisticated software. The final artwork contains movement within movement, mapping land that does not belong to her, thereby addressing the notion of power and ownership in relation to technology.

Homecoming Exhibition at ACRE

Shelter, 2017. Homecoming curated by Sabrina Greig at ACRE in Chicago

Homecoming
Works by Bahareh Khoshooee, Ke Peng, and Minoosh Zomorodinia
Curated by Sabrina Greig
October 6th-27th

Homecoming is a three-person exhibition presenting work by Bahareh Khoshooee, Ke Peng, and Minoosh Zomorodinia at ACRE Project Galleries from October 6th- October 27th. Working across the mediums of photography, video, and installation, the exhibiting artists expand the scope of transnational narratives to challenge notions of citizenship and sensations of belonging. Through the manipulation of digital interfaces, they collectively provide an innovative commentary on the socio-political uncertainties Diasporic communities face.

Originating from the international locations of Iran and China, the artists on view in Homecoming redefine place-making from multiple perspectives. Minoosh Zomorodinia exhibits Shelter, a multimedia installation that uses kaleidoscopic projections to investigate the humanitarian issue of homelessness and society’s relationship to the natural world. Bahareh Khoshooee’s video entitled <<–space spice ,.;’]’ foreign sneeze )’///:;’.,; Sunday snooze =’;,.>> is an ironic exploration of the challenging process of obtaining a U.S Visa. The piece touches upon the fragility of American citizenship and how the nuances of immigration politics can complicate one’s daily experience. Your Flower Might not Blossom by Ke Peng is a meditation on maturation and becoming an adult away from loved ones. The narrative follows the artist’s grandmother who believes in the auspicious significance of lotus flowers.

Each exhibited piece, bordering on the uncanny and the otherworldly, gives agency to Bahareh Khoshooee, Ke Peng, and Minoosh Zomorodinia as they question the value and intricacies of locating home. Their transnational critiques dynamically visualize their internal and external worlds through digital means, making their immigrant experiences tangible and accessible to the viewer.

Transform Fest 2017 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Sept 16&21, 2017 8pm

Larry Arrington is a dance artist, Sandra Lawson Ndu is a musician based in Oakland, and Minoosh Zomorodinia is an Iranian-born artist working in photography, video, performance, and installation.

These collaborators will turn to magic, imagination, and story, digging into the soil to unearth gestating potential. What stories do we belong to? What magic are we using to create contexts that produce these questions of citizenship? Stories create fear, but they also create magic.

Commons Opening at the Headlands Center for the Arts Sept 17th, 2017

Knots& Ripples, Introductions at Root Division, Sept 9, 2017 8pm

Open Studio at I-Park Artist Residency July  23, 2017

Everyone is Hypnotized: Artists Dérive the Bay Area, is a group exhibition of works by 11 Bay Area artists that draw from the experience of wandering about the Bay Area’s rich and varied landscapes. This exhibition was curated by the Oakland-based team Gipe + Tell as part of Pro Arts’ Curators in Residence program. Exhibiting artists include Sebastian Alvarez, Brian Dean, Joanne Easton, Marshall Elliott, Jon Gourley, Jon Kuzmich, Leora Lutz, Andréanne Michon, Maria Porges, Michal Wisniowski and Minoosh Zomorodinia.

The exhibition is inspired by Guy Debord’s “Theory of the Dérive,” a dérive being an unplanned journey in which participants ‘let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there.’ Curators, Gipe + Tell began with the question, “What steps can artists take to engage in intellectual investigation, creative growth, and critical interrogation while navigating the urban environment?” They asked the artists to engage in dérive as a template for exploration, with the artwork being a visual manifestation of their experience. The resulting artwork highlights the possibility for engagement, detachment or both.

Stairwell’s Mini-Field Trips, Saturday, May 20, 2017, 11am – 4pm

Common Grounds Arts Festival Family Day

San Francisco Chronicle Parking Lot (5th & Natoma), SOMA

FREE

Join Stairwell’s at the Common Grounds Arts Festival Family Day, hosted by Intersection for the Arts, for hands-on activities and two newly-crafted mini-Field Trips! Each of these FREE one-hour walking tours will be led by Stairwell’s Co-Director Carey Lin in collaboration with guest Field Trip leaders Raheleh Minoosh Zomorodinia and Gabriel Gilder.

Explore the SOMA neighborhood, write (and decode) secret messages, play interactive games and much more! Field Trips depart at 12:30 pm and 2:30 pm but we expect the spots to fill up fast, so stop by the festival early to sign-up if you’d like to come along. Curious about what happens on a Stairwell’s Field Trip? Check out photos of some of our past walks.