Laleh Khorramian (b. 1974 Tehran, Iran) studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI and earned her BFA at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (1997), and her MFA at Columbia University, New York, NY (2004). She has presented solo exhibitions at venues such as The Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, UK; Salon 94, New York, NY; Statements, Art Basel, Switzerland; Midnight Moment, Times Square, NY, and Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria. The artist has participated in numerous group exhibitions including MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; Sundance Film Festival, Park City, UT; Saatchi Gallery, London, UK; MoMA P.S.1, NY; Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX; among others. Select awards include the Vasseur Artists’ Award, the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, the Pat Hearn and Colin Deland Foundation Grant, The Gottlieb Foundation Grant and the Agnes Martin Award. In 2012, she published Include Amplified Toilet Water (Bartleby and Co. Publishers, Brussels, Belgium), which is housed in the collections of MoMA, Centre Pompidou, and the Royal Library of Belgium. In 2013, she created LALOON, an ongoing project of hand-painted garments and costumes, as an extension of her artistic practice. Khorramian lives and works in upstate NY where she is also a Visiting Artist in Residence at Bard College and SUNY Albany.
Statement
The invisible and the felt are investigations that drive my narratives. Through drawing, painting, collage and textiles, I make art to express language about vulnerability and disorientation, both personal and universal. In my ongoing Banners series, I look to ancient illuminated manuscripts and stained glass to engage how transformation, transcendence, and disfiguration can be distilled within a single composition.
Materialized through an intensive and experimental process of layering, my process is driven by my engagement with chance and intention. Monotypes have long been a staple of this process and themselves are reservoirs of ideas that play into nearly every body of work. This point of departure, which starts with a single mark or imprint as the foundation for discovery, yields latent and textured topographical imagery. Otherworldly landscapes reveal objects and mysterious figures, inviting settings for potential narratives. These details act as “oracles” as I call them, guiding the meaning and subject matter, as I create and intuitively discover my work simultaneously.