Elnaz Javani is an artist and educator whose multidisciplinary practice spans textiles, drawing, printmaking, and installation. Her work explores themes of identity, place, power dynamics, and labor, constructing personal and fictional spaces through processes of layering, stitching, and material manipulation.
Javani’s artistic language is deeply rooted in the tactile and transformative qualities of her chosen materials. She creates complex, layered compositions where fragility and strength coexist, inviting viewers into intimate and contemplative experiences.
Her work has received widespread acclaim and has been exhibited internationally in venues across the USA, Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. Javani has been recognized with numerous awards, including the New Voices 2024 at Print Center New York, the Center for Craft Artist Cohort Grant, and the Kala Art Institute Fellowship.
Javani’s artistic language is deeply rooted in the tactile and transformative qualities of her chosen materials. She creates complex, layered compositions where fragility and strength coexist, inviting viewers into intimate and contemplative experiences.
Her work has received widespread acclaim and has been exhibited internationally in venues across the USA, Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. Javani has been recognized with numerous awards, including the New Voices 2024 at Print Center New York, the Center for Craft Artist Cohort Grant, and the Kala Art Institute Fellowship.
Currently based in Fort Collins, Colorado, Elnaz Javani continues to push boundaries in contemporary fiber and material studies, establishing herself as a compelling voice in the dialogue between craft, identity, and narrative.
EDUCATION:-
2015 - School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Master of Fine Arts in Fiber and Materials Studies, New Artist Society Scholarship & Full Merit Scholarship.
2011 - Art University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Practice, Graduated with Honors with a focus on Textiles.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:-
2025 Breathless, (two-person show). Rarares Gallery & Satellite Gallery, DIFC, Dubai, UAE
Inner Compulsion, the Esther and John Clay Fine Art Gallery, Laramie, WY, USA
2024 Oddments, UNC Mariani Gallery, Greeley, CO, USA
Inner Compulsion, Lynden Sculpture Garden, River Hills, WI, USA
2023 Dwelling Places, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
2022 Phonetic Fragments, (two person show), Roots & Culture, Chicago, IL, USA
2021 Exo, (two‐person show) Devening Projects, Chicago, IL, USA
There you were, and then you were there more, A+C architects Gallery, Skokie, IL, USA
2020 Your Residue ته ماندە تو , One after 909 Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
2019 Inner Compulsion, OGGI Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
2017 Unfolded, La Caja Blanca Art Gallery, Palma De Mallorca, Spain
2016 To Cut a Tongue that Has Not Been Tamed, La Caja Blanca Art Gallery, Palma De Mallorca, Spain
2013 Dealing with People, CAC Ses Voltes International Residency Program Gallery, Palma De Mallorca, Spain
Fate, Homa Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2011 Flood Carried Sarah Away, Homa Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2010 Broken glasses, The Art Gallery of Tehran Art University of Arts, Tehran, Iran
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:-
2025 Art Central. Contemporary Art Fair. Hong Kong
Habitat. Group show. Rarares Gallery & 3L Gallery. Moscow, Russia
Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Editions Dubai Art Fair, Rarares Gallery, Dubai, UAE
MENA Art Fair, Liberty Belac gallery, Paris, France
Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, Fort Collins, CO, USA
In Women’s Words,Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran
2024 SEAMS, Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art, Milwaukee, WI, USA
New Voices: Ritual , Print Center New York, NY, USA
Falling into Language , Craft Contemporary Museum Los Angeles, CA, USA
2023 Tryst Alternative Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Terrain Exhibitions, Twin Flat Projects, Oak Park, IL, USA
Life Cycles, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL, USA
Light in Darkness, Homa Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2022 Why am I not Being Seen, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Madrid, Spain ARCO Expo, Madrid Museum, Madrid, Spain
Newcity's Breakout Artists show, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL, USA
Jameel Arts Center, Mojgan Endgavi Collection, Dubai, UAE
2021 In Good Company, Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL, USA
Once upon a time, Foundry Gallery, Dubai, UAE
Sea of Fertility: Looking at the Invisible, Kala Art, Berkeley, CA, USA
JUSTMAD, International Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid, Spain
2020 SOMOS LA RABIA Y LA VOZ, Espacio Anexo, THE LIMINAL, Valencia, Spain N0‐ Rooz, Langer over Dickie Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
2020 SOMOS LA RABIA Y LA VOZ, Espacio Anexo, THE LIMINAL, Valencia, Spain N0‐ Rooz, Langer over Dickie Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Pop Up Shop Show, Langer over Dickie Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Drawings, paintings, maybe a sculpture 3, Everybody Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
2019 Prints United, Spudnik press, Chicago, IL, USA
In Sound, Collaboration with Nesrine Khodr, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL, USA
Refugees, Galicia Contemporary Art Center, Galicia, Spain
PlayGround, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL, USA
WOM4WOM, D.Varelli Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Paper Art fair, New York, New York, USA
Transistors, Ralph Arnold Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Part7, 12 Openings, Compound yellow gallery, Oak Park, IL, USA
2018 Newland, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y Leon, Leon, Spain
Moving_image_00:00 , ACRE, Chicago, IL, USA
Through Her Eye, Mana contemporary, Chicago, IL, USA
Connected, Mottahedan Projects, Dubai, UAE
Montakhab‐e Nasl‐e No, Homa Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2017 Sedentary Fragmentation, Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Reproducible , the Art Museum of Pereira, Columbia, USA
ECHO, Gallery Kayafas, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Reproducibles , Quinta Cultural, Bogota, Columbia, USA
Waste Lands, Museum San Telmo, San Sebastián, Spain
Tecnologías de la violencia, Arts Santa Mónica, Barcelona, Spain
2016 Beirut Art Fair, Endjavi Barbe Art Projects, Collonge Bellerive, Switzerland
SEW+ZAN, Azad Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2015 5+6, Mottahedan Projects, Dubai, UAE
Country‐Home, CUE Art Foundation, New York, NY, USA
Luminarts Cultural Foundation Visual Arts Competition at Union League, Chicago
Final Show, Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL, USA
Good News from Iran, Mottahedan Projects, Dubai, UAE
Drawing Weeks, Homa Art gallery, Tehran, Iran
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal USA Presidential Award Exhibitions, Chicago, IL, USA
2014 Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal USA Presidential Award Exhibitions, Chicago, IL, USA
Good News from Iran, the Munich cultural center at Pasinger Fabric, Munich, Germany
Sense of Self, the Arts Exchange at the Xchange Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Fractured yet Rising, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
2013 Good News from Iran, Frank Pages Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
Drawing Week, Homa Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Play, Shirin Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2012 Lost World, ENDJAVI‐BARBE ART PROJECTS, Bâtiment d’Art Contemporain,Geneva, Switzerland
Persbook Art Festival, Sin Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Window, Farvahar Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Progressive Youth, Mellat Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
RESIDENCIES:-
2025 Houston Center for Craft contemporary, Huston, TX, USA
Oxbow School of Art (Summer), Saugatuck, MI, USA
2024 Prairie Sea Projects, Alma creative residency, Joes, CO, USA
Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee, River Hills, WI, USA
BAS Art Collection, Istanbul, Turkey
Oxbow School of Art (winter), Saugatuck, MI, USA
2021 Kala Art Institute Fellowship Residency Program, Berkeley, CA, USA
2019 Hyde Park Art Center Residency Program, Chicago, IL, USA
MASS MOCA Residency Program, North Adams, MA, USA
2018 De-construkt Residency Program, Brooklyn, New York, USA
2015 Vermont Studio Center, Accepted Fellow, Johnson, Vermont, USA
The Munich cultural center at Pasinger Fabrik, Munich, Germany
2013 CAC Ses Voltes International Residency program, Palma De Mallorca, Spain
Spain Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca, Palma De Mallorca, Spain
2012 Poster for Tomorrow Artist in Residences, Paris, France
The Geneva Council Travel and artist in Residence, Geneva, Switzerland