Fine Arts Center Gallery is Transformed by 'Sentients' Exhibition

Laleh Khorramian

The Fine Arts Center Gallery in the School of Art at the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to present 'Sentients' by multi-media artist Laleh Khorramian.

Sentients opens today, Jan. 17, and will be on display through Feb. 23. All are invited to attend the opening reception from 5-7 this evening, Friday, Jan. 17. The reception and exhibition are free and open to the public.

"The School of Art is honored to exhibit the work of Laleh Khorramian at the Fine Arts Center Gallery," said Maryamsadat Amirvaghefi, assistant director of exhibitions and curator. "Not only is it a challenging exhibition, but one that perfectly captures the spirit of this moment in time."

Originally from Iran, Khorramian describes her drive as something that was drafted from past generations and baked into her DNA. 

"Hard enough to say what I'm here to do," Khorramian said. "The little information I've come up with so far, is that I'm here to string together parts of a larger story through painted images over the course of my life."

Khorramian's practice incorporates the cosmological thinking of ancient cultures, their complex mythologies and evocative spiritual vocabularies within her imagined worlds. In creating her work, she synthesizes these notions into "histories" that are both futuristic and ancient.

The Fine Arts Center Gallery has transformed the typical white canvas space into darkness, showcasing a new depth of color and light found in Khorramian's work. 

"When the audience walks into the gallery, on the surface it may seem carefree and fun as you are surrounded by colored lights, but as they walk through, a deeper meaning is there for discovery," said Marc Mitchell, director of exhibitions. 

Khorramian sees her studio practice as a series of experiments that embrace chance as a starting point for discovering possibilities of the unknown, whose details and outcomes she then investigates and reposition. 

Her work spans the areas of stop motion animation films, sound works, monoprints, drawings, painted landscape, portraits and collage. 

Khorramian studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and received her undergraduate degree at The School of Art Institute of Chicago and her Master of Fine Arts degree at Columbia University, New York. 

She has exhibited internationally, including venues such as MASS MOCA, U.S.A; Victoria Albert Museum, London; Art Basel Statements, Switzerland; Ballroom Marfa, Texas; Istanbul Museum of Art, Istanbul; The Sundance Film Festival, Utah; The Midnight Moment in Times Square, New York City; and The Queensland Art Gallery, Australia.

In 2013, Bartleby and Co. published her first limited edition artist book titled, 'Include Amplified Toilet Water', housed in the collections of MoMA, New York City; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Columbia University, New York City; and the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels. 

Experience Sentients Jan. 17 to Feb. 23 at the Fine Arts Center Gallery.

Gallery Hours:

• Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Sunday, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.