Taravat Talepasand


Taravat Talepasand is an Iranian American contemporary artist and educator. She is best known for her paintings, drawings, and sculptures addressing cultural taboos, displaying a juxtaposition of cultural stereotypes and expressing female empowerment. Talepasand previously held the title of the chair of the painting department at San Francisco Art Institute.

Biography

Taravat Talepasand was born in 1979 in Eugene, Oregon, her father Iraj was studying at University of Oregon at the time. She was raised in Portland, Oregon. She studied Persian miniature painting in Isfahan. Talepasand received her B.F.A. degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001 and M.F.A.degree at the San Francisco Art Institute in 2006.
She has taught in the Painting Department at SFAI and at California College of the Arts. She previously was the chair of the painting department at San Francisco Art Institute, until 2019.
In the 2014 exhibition, Theory of Survival: Fabrications curated by Taraneh Hemami at Southern Exposure gallery brought together twelve San Francisco Bay Area Iranian-American artists to display work in their own booth, similar to a traditional bazaar. The space allowed for a gathering place for Iranian American artists and allowed for more community dialog. Talepasand's own booth featured souvenir-type items for sale such as t-shirts, magnets and CDs, highlighting the relationship between consumer culture and the arts but also addressing Orientalism. Artists participating in the exhibition included; Hushidar Mortezaie, Morehshin Allahyari, Haleh Niazmand, Ala Ebtekar, Sanaz Mazinani, Ali Dadgar and Gelare Khoshgozaran.
Her work has been featured in Art in America, The Huffington Post, New American Paintings, Art Papers, The Boston Globe, SOMA Magazine and many more. Talepasand has exhibited her work in United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Talepasand was one of forty artists selected by the Orange County Museum of Art for the 2010 California Biennial.
Her works have been added to the permanent museum collections at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco at the De Young Museum and the Orange County Museum of Art.