SARA RAHBAR

SARA RAHBARBorn 1976, Tehran Iran lives and works in New York Sara Rahbar was born in Tehran, Iran in 1976. But both the revolution in Iran and the start of the Iran Iraq war forced her to escape her birthplace. She had no choice but to leave family behind and abandon her home. This was so much to digest at such a young age that it only resulted by leaving a void in her. Ironically, it was these series of events that would forever change and shape Rahbar into the artist and humanitarian she is today. Today, Rahbar has found a way to harness her experiences and life journeys in effort to educate and transform the world through her alluring works of art.Rahbar studied Fine Art in London, and Design in New York. Her work has been shown in several galleries and museums worldwide. A few teaching assignments she decided to take on included, but definitely not limited to, “Woman for Afghan Woman” in addition to a professional development program for correctional educators and at the Flushing Library in New York. Rahbar’s art has both an educational and healing presence. Taking notice of this, The Queens Museum of Art took advantage of the positive effects of her work by using it for art therapy workshops for severely disabled children.She has been an art director for the Persian Arts Festival, a film Photographer and Production coordinator for various films and documentaries. Furthermore, Rahbar has also been a freelance photographer in Iran for several years. Her work has been reviewed and praised in a multitude of prominent publications all over the world including; The New York Times, BBC Persian, Time Out New York, Radio Farda, Venuszine, Iranian, PS1 MoMA: Emergency Room, Payvand, Iran Times,Yen magazine, Alef Magazine and Art Asia Pacific just to name a few.Rahbar’s work has been featured on book covers such as, Melody Moezzi’s War on Eror: Real Stories of American Muslims. Additionally, her photography featuring YAS, Iran's biggest Hip Hop artist, spread virally via the internet. She documented his life and career for the past three years which led to an album cover, hundreds of publications, websites/interviews, music blogs, and video clips ..thus far. Her work was featured as the face of the 2008 Noor Film Festival.Rahbar has been invited to many speaking engagements, and most recently spoke at the Queens Museum of Art at the School of Visual Arts and at el MUSEO del barrio.Rahbar currently resides happily in her New York studio. EDUCATION 2004-2005 Central Saint Martins Collage of Art and Design (Fine Art) 1996-2000 The Fashion Institute of Technology (Fashion Design)EXHIBITIONS 2008 Pulse Art Fair In collaboration with Saatchi Online- New York, Raid Projects Los Angeles, Human Rights Awareness Tour a traveling exhibition www.humanrightstour.org, This Case of Conscience - Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance Queens Museum of Art New York, Regional Delicacies,Phillips de Pury & Company at the CAF In collaboration with XVA gallery & Alef Magazine Bastakiya Dubai, The Veil: Visible and invisible spaces a traveling exhibition www.theveilbook.com, Persian Arts Festival: Weaving the Common Thread: Perspectives from Iranian Artists QUEENS MUSEUM OF ART New York2007 Continuity And Change: Islamic Tradition In Contemporary Art The Williamsburg Art and Historical Center Brooklyn NY, Hyphenation Exhibition University of Maryland Union Gallery Maryland, Iranian Literary Arts Festival Theater Artaud San Francisco, Inclusion Exclusion Bronco exhibit gallery Cal Poly Pomona Los Angeles, Celluloid Gallery One San Francisco, Emergency Room PS1 MoMA New York, Emergence Current Gallery Baltimore MD, Beyond Persia Gallery One San Francisco, Changing Climate Changing Colors 24 Contemporary Muslim Artists Henry Street Settlement New York2006Chicago Artist Month Beyond Boundaries Global Citizen John Fluevog Chicago, Everything, All at Once QMA Biennial Queens Museum of Art New York, Nobody's Enemy Queens Museum of Art New York, Great Neck Arts Center New York (Awarded Honorable Mention), The Shelter Rock Art Gallery New York, BT Brooklyn Lyceum New York,2004 See Williamsburg Lunar Base Gallery Brooklyn NYEXPERIENCE2008Work used for The 2008 Noor Film Festival Los Angeles, Sandarbh U.S. International Artist residency Moultrie Georgia,Teaching Artist Flushing Library, in collaboration with the Queens Museum of Art, New York2007 Work featured on the cover of Melody Moezzi’s War on Eror: Real Stories of American Muslims, Work featuring YAS (Iran's biggest name in Hip Hop) can be found through out the Internet. Documenting his life, and career for the past three years, has led to an album cover, as well as hundreds of publications, websites/interviews, music blogs, and video clips. Speaking engagement at, el MUSEO del barrio, forum on immigration and museum education, New York Teaching Artist at the Queens Library, New Americans Program- in collaboration with the Queens Museum of Art, New York Speaking engagement at The School of Visual Arts, New York Teaching Artist, Woman for Afghan Woman, New York Artist and Art Director of the Persian Arts Festival, New York (2005-2007) Film Photographer and Production Coordinator, Nobody's Enemy,Tehran, Iran, New York (2005-2007)2006Teaching Artist, Professional Development Program for Correctional Educators, Queens Museum of Art, New York Teaching Artist Residency, Queens Museum of Art, New York Artwork used for art therapy workshops for severely disabled children, Queens Museum of Art, New York2005 Freelance Photographer, Tehran, Iran (2005-Present) Photographer for short film Nobody has a name Nobody,Tehran, Iran SELECTED ARTICLES2008 Alef Magazine “A Woman of Substance” by Ana Finel Honigman March/April 2008, Art Asia Pacific Issue no. 57” Sara Rahbar: Weaving the Flag” By Jaishri Abichandani March/April 2008, Artnet Hello Dubai by Ana Finel Honigman March 24th 2008, Art Daily Precursor to bill of rights makes its return March 21st 2008, Voice of America January 25 20082007 Yen , The Art of War, by Rebecca Couche, issue 30 2007 Iran Times , The Iranian American Artist be-gifts her work for the sake of Human Rights, December 14th 2007 Oziran, “Art for the Sake of Humanity” by Sanaz Fotouhi, October 2007 Payvand, “An Interview with Human Rights Artist Sara Rahbar” by Ali Moayedian, August 2007 Shrug Magazine, “My Iran, I am not Ahmadinenejad, I am an Iranian, I am not President Bush, I am an American” by Oliver Shamlou, August 2007 Payvand, “Profile: Sara Rahbar, Iranian-American Human Rights Artist” by Ali Moayedian, July 18 2007 Sunday Magazine, “Sara Rahbar Attachments” Pars Arts, “Iranian Artists at the Queens Museum (II)” by Sepideh Saremi, January 17th 2007 Pars Arts, “Sara Rahbar at the Queens Museum” by Sepideh Saremi, January 5th 2007 PS1 MoMA, “Emergency Room” by Debora Gilbert Namak, “Contradicting Realities” by Monique Soltani, March 2007 Payvand, “The Axis of Art & Culture?” by Ali Moayedian,February 28 2007 Tehran, “Sara Rahbar the Iranian American Activist Artist” by, Shahbod Noori, February 2, 2007 Venus Zine, “Sara Rahbar: The Activist-Artist” by Sheba White, January 2007 Time Out New York, “Queens International: Everything All At Once” by Kate Loenstein, Issue 589 January 11 17, 2007 Iranian, “American Portrait” by Neda Sarmast, Oct 25, 2006, Attachments June 18, 2007, Persian Mirror, “Addressing the Personal, Cultural and Political” April 17th 20072006New York Times, “Art From Everywhere, All From Queens” by Martha Schwendener December 15, 2006 BBC Persian, “Rozeh Haftome” by Nazanin Mazhari , November 2006 Persian Mirror, “Sara Rahbar: A Portrait” by Neda Sarmast, October 24, 2006 Persian Mirror, “A Collection of Iranian Artwork” Oct 14, 2006 Queens Chronicle, “Qboro-Day Tripping at Queens International" by Jennifer Manley, Oct 19, 2006 Queens International 2006, Everything All at Once, Vol. 3 Oct 2006 REVIEWS "Sara Rahbar's ambitions for her work are to break down the delineations that divide communities. Rahbar was born in Tehran, Iran and escaped with her family to New York when the revolution began in 1979. After completing studies in fine art in London she returned to Iran to work on a documentary film on the youth culture of Iran, as well as to document the 2005 presidential elections. For Queens international, she has created a hyper-active specific installation consisting of collaged, culturally charged textiles, emotionally aggressive paintings and reveling photographs of Iranian youth, the presidential elections and other scenes from life in Tehran. The piece evokes the complex and tumultuous life in present-day Iran, countering the western media's one-dimensional portrayal of the country as filled with war-inciting Muslim extremists.In many ways, Rahbar's work perfectly embodies the subtitle of this year's Queens International-Everything All at Once. Her work has no time for irony and seeks a larger purpose for art, one that isn't obsessed with failure and narcissistic death wishes that have become mannered in too much contemporary art. Instead, like many other artists in the exhibition, she uses her art to engage the audience in a dialog about our status as citizens in a very fragile world. It seems appropriate to end this essay in her words": " I move the focus away from male and female, Muslim and Jewish, American and Iranian, and I look at a bigger picture. There was a time when I was constantly questioning me culture, religion, and my identity. I have finally come to the conclusion that the only thing I want to do is shed these titles that have created so much separation between us. We are all human beings attempting to survive ourselves, our lives, and each other. I don't believe in the boarders and separation created by the devotion toward a flag, a county, or a religion. My intention and my driving force is to focus on our similarities rather our differences."- by Herb Tam, Queens Museum of Art, Queens State of Mind, The co-curator of Queens International 2006"Sara Rahbar takes an open-eyed awareness to issues surrounding identity, patriotism, and the labelling of individuals or groups by suggesting that we are all a collection of our experiences. On this point she writes, ‘with each new layer comes a new memory - perhaps a new identity. They are never left behind, they become our filters. They are always there, and they make up who we become, how we see our selves, and how we see each other.’ Beneath concepts of patriotism or allegiance, beyond symbols of unification and the emblems of power is the shared consciousness of ages, of suffering and perseverance. In her photographic works American Portrait and Terrorist, the mask, the flag, and the associated identity as one who poses a threat represent Rahbar=s filters which form not only our views of the outside world, but are the framework on which we build our understanding of the self and perhaps the issues of worth which are always intimately entwined. She asks for the possibility of assessing our similarities, which run beneath our adherence to ideologies or symbols, and are much older and basic to our consciousness than any division along cultural or political lines. Rahbar seeks a dialogue that transcends difference- toward a more basic and truthful understanding of the shared points of identity that connects us all.- by Robert Jason Fagan, Art Historian/ Art Critic (excerpt from the Emergence Exhibition Catalogue)"Sara Rahbar says, "I never considered myself an immigrant or a woman, only a human being...the only time I feel like a feminist, and remember that I am a woman is when I am in Iran. From the moment I wake up till the end of everyday...I am attempting to prove that I am strong...attempting to claim basic human rights, attempting to get the job done and moving mountains to do so. In America it does not even occur to me that I am a woman, I am independent, and feel that I can do anything a man can do."-by Jaishri Abichandani, Queens Museum of Art Reterritorializing Queens, The co-curator of Queens International 2006, Director of public projects, founder of SWCC, South Asian Woman's Creative Collective."Sara Rahbar is the personification of , Norooz’. (Persian word for ‘new year’) A fresh young talent with an attitude, she brings an unapologetic edge to Iranian art. Her in-your-face political statements are a reflection of an entire generation that have grown up American, but nevertheless, under great suspicion and enduring subtle and not so subtle racism. I think that is what she means when she talks about standing up for others, and in doing so she becomes controversial and easily talked about."The exhibit features the work of contemporary master Sara Rahbar whose body of work includes complicated, abstract and often political pieces, Rahbar's well-known "Terrorist” including several of Ms. Rahbar's softer works, the heart of which is the stunning mixed media installation, "Flag."- by Lale Shahparaki Welsh, Beyond Persia Founder and Executive Director"Change can come from a government, but it can also come from the people: that is exactly what Sara is doing. Her art screams freedom for the socially repressed. I am truly moved by what she is up to. Sara is taking an extraordinary stand for the Iranian people in the statements she makes through her art. She has done a fantastic job of representing their voices through a wide variety of mediums."- by Mona Kayhan, Persian Arts Festival Founder "Sara Rahbar's work details the experience of being Iranian-American with a mash-up of U.S. references (the Stars and Stripes) and Iranian ones (textiles, for example), presented through collage, photographs and writing; "- by Kate Lowenstein, TimeOut New York AQueens International: Everything All at Once."Just inside the entrance, a collaborative installation, Nobody's Enemy, recreates the look of a living room in a Middle East war zone, with walls pockmarked by shrapnel, and furniture and carpets covered with dusty grime. As in the Greater New York and this year's Whitney Biennial, war is not left unaddressed by artists like Ms. Rahbar.- by Martha Schwendener, New York Times Art & Design Art Review, Queens International 2006 Art From Everywhere, All From Queens Artist StatementMy work is a mirror image of my life; my geographic locations, my history, my present, my environments, and my memories. My goal is to educate, and to show another perspective.My work addresses identity, and the notion of borders, cultural and geographic, and questions the concept of belonging. I am quite anti flag, and feel that they play a major role in keeping us divided, and separate. They put into place this mind set, that we are so different from one another. I don’t believe in the borders created by the devotion towards a flag, a country, or, a religion. The only thing I want to do with these titles that have created so much separation between us, is shed them.Through my work I ask the viewer to look at the bigger picture, and to be awake to the way that we view one another, to move the focus away from cities, states and countries, and to see a world at hand. To re- look at the concept of coexisting, as opposed to tolerating, and to begin to see things in a new light, with a new perspective. To begin to focus on our similarities, rather that our differences. Reminding us that we have built these imaginary borders, and only we have the power to take them down.Metamorphosing, transforming, and reshaping for the means of surviving it all. Our foundations lay, but our houses have burned to the ground. Building castles in the sky for a species that cannot fly, brick by limb we tear it down, thinking that we are moving forwards, yet moving backwards all along.Gajar woman and golden toys, we wait for dawn. ____________________________________ MY UP AND COMING SHOWS AND PROJECTS ____________________________________.This Case of Conscience - Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance, Queens Museum of Art, New York April 6th-June 29th.Human Rights Awareness tour across American Universities for more information please go to: www.humanrightstour.org. The Veil: Visible and Invisible Spaces, a traveling exhibition The Veil: Visible & Invisible Spaces has been organized as a visual response to the myriad cultural and political aspects of veils and veiling. The exhibition will begin traveling in May 2008. Artists from the United States, Europe, South and Central Asia and the Near and Middle East are participating with powerful contemporary works that engage received wisdom about the veil – including current clichés and stereotypes about Islamic practices – and that reflect on the great ubiquity, importance, and profundity of the veil throughout human history and imagination. www.theveilbook.com