Azin is Getting Married, Shabnam Jannesari, Oil on canvas, 55x82 inches, 2020
Look, but Look With Love
April 12 - May 15, 2024
Curated by Taylor Hickey
With work by Seyhr Qayum and Shabnam Jannesari
Opening Reception: Friday, April 12, 6-8pm
NARS Main Gallery
Look, but Look With Love showcases artwork by Shabnam Jannesari and Seyhr Qayum—women artists originally from Iran and Pakistan respectively—centering the universal, perennial question of how, when, and where women hold space. Jannesari's paintings create a world in which the strong Iranian women in her life live freely. Qayum's metal sculptures explore how adorning one's body can be an act of resistance, delving into the relationship between jewelry and self-actualization.
NARS Foundation Galleries are open to the public from 12pm - 5pm, Monday - Friday. Please contact info@narsfoundation.org with any other inquires.
About the artists:
Seyhr Qayum (b. 1991) is a Kansas City-based multidisciplinary artist, whose practice sits at the intersection of adornment, capital, and feminism. She is the recipient of the Stutzman Foundation Award for Three-Dimensional Work, 2022, and is an AICAD Fellow at the Kansas City Art Institute. She has exhibited her artwork internationally, and has been an artist-in-residence at the Wassaic Project, NY, Chautauqua Institution, NY, and Ato Nexus, Tokyo. Qayum holds a B.F.A. from Boston University, MA, and an M.F.A. from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.
Shabnam Jannesari Shabnam Jannesari is a highly accomplished Iranian artist and an assistant professor of Art at Hastings College, NE. She obtained her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) with distinction from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and has exhibited her works both internationally and in the US. Notably, she has held two recent solo shows, Each String is a Thread, Each Color is Chord at the Nebraska Art Council in Omaha, NE, and The Carpet Grew like a Garden at the 263 Gallery in Cambridge, MA. Her art portrays the struggles and strengths of Iranian women and challenges societal norms while highlighting female identity. She is a recipient of the Distinguished Art Fellowship at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth from 2018 to 2021 and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant in 2020 and 2022. Furthermore, she was selected for the competitive Chautauqua Art Residency program in 2022 at Chautauqua Visual Arts in New York.
About the curator:
Taylor Hickey is a printmaker, bookmaker, and sculptor working out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Born in Southeast Texas, Taylor earned her BA in Drawing and Printmaking from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She went on to earn an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2021, developing a body of work which pays homage to the human endeavor to understand the universe at large. In addition, she has taught various art classes at UMass Dartmouth, the MFA Boston, RISD Pre-College, and other institutions. In her free time, she frequently guest curates exhibitions and helps to organize events within her local arts community.
NARS exhibition programs are made possible in part through the generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and, in part, supported by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
