Farah Ossouli: Ars Poetica
September 4, 2012 – January 9, 2013

In her work, Iranian-born artist Farah Ossouli weaves elements of traditional Persian miniatures with new features, including contemporary Farsi poetry, painted motifs, Tazhib (decorative arts and book illuminations) designs with weapons, and references to famous images by artists such as Frida Kahlo and Francisco Goya. Ossouli’s paintings highlight the state of women in regions of conflict. She writes, “The overriding theme in these pictures is that appearances may be deceptive of underlying realities as seen in packaged news and sanitized media… The contrast between serene surface beauty and lurking violence also exists in traditional miniatures, but in ‘Ars Poetic’ it reflects the tension and conflict I feel about the gap between appearance and reality in the country, the region, and the world I live in.”

Farah Ossouli was born in Zanjan, Iran and received her bachelors’ degree in Graphic Design at Tehran University. Her work is multifaceted in its formal, historic, and symbolic complexity—an expression of an artist with boundless energy. Ossouli is motivated by the desire to see change in the place of women within traditional gender hierarchies. She draws her inspiration from numerous sources, including iconic western or Persian art, decorative arts (book illuminations, carpets, fabrics), and contemporary Persian Poetry. Ossouli now spends her time as an artist living in both Brooklyn and Iran.

The Fertile Crescent: Gender, Art, and Society is presented by the Institute from Women & Art at Rutgers, and has been made possible through support from the National Endowment for the Arts; the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the Violet Jabara Charitable Trust; the Artis Foundation, & The New Jersey Council for the Humanities. The Rutgers University Institute for Women and Art is a unit of the Rutgers Office of the Associate Vice President for Academic and Public Partnerships in the Arts and Humanities. More information about the Fertile Crescent can be found at www.fertile-crescent.org.

Image credit: Farah Ossouli, "Ahmad and I," 2012, Gouache on Arches paper, 76cmx56cm, Courtesy of the artist 

Orbit One Gallery is on the second floor, Campus Center.