PANTEA KARIMI: cube is NOT geometric
OCTOBER 21st, 2022 – NOVEMBER 26th, 2022
Pantea Karimi grew up perceiving the cube as a complex “distorted” object, better defined by culture and religion than geometry. In cube is NOT geometric, by utilizing video, animation, wall drawing, and sculpture, Karimi investigates the cube relevant to her personal experiences, past and present, in three contexts: political, religious, and playful. Her cube is consciously and conscientiously not geometric. These works are inspired by Sol LeWitt’s geometrical wall drawings, prints, and 3-dimensional work. In particular, Karimi is inspired by LeWitt’s Distorted Cubes wall drawings that borrow Islamic geometric motifs such as the eight-pointed star, which were used in historic religious architecture in Iran.
Pantea Karimi
PANTEA KARIMI is an Iranian-American multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator based in San Jose, CA. Karimi grew up in post-revolutionary Iran where her education in science and art was entwined with religious indoctrination. Her art explores historic, religious, scientific, and political themes using virtual reality (VR), performative video, animation, sound, print, drawing, and installation. Taking the cue from her research on Iran’s historic, religious, and scientific manuscripts and objects, Karimi’s work highlights Iran’s visual culture, and personal narratives reflecting upon her gender and upbringing in Iran, intertwined with conflicting political, religious, and societal issues. Karimi’s works have been exhibited internationally including exhibitions in Iran, Algeria, Germany, Croatia, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States. She is the recipient of the Santa Fe Art Institute 2024 Sovereignty Artist Residency, the 2023-2026 Lucas Artist Program Residency at Montalvo Art Center, the 2022 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Artist Grant, the 2022 Mass MoCA Artist Residency, the 2021 University of California San Francisco Library Artist Residency, the 2019 City of San Jose Arts and Cultural Exchange Grant and the Silicon Valley Artist Laureates Award and the 2017 Kala Fellowship-Residency.