Raheleh Filsoofi
Filsoofi is a 2023 Joan Mitchell Fellow, 2023 MacDowell Fellow, and currently Assistant Professor in Ceramics at Vanderbilt University, with recent solo shows at Vanderbilt, The Gibbes Museum and Atlanta Contemporary, among other institutions. She works in ceramics, drawing, video, sound and performance and explains her approach thus: I have a nomadic and itinerant artistic practice, which involves exploring various dimensions: geographical, conceptual, temporal, and disciplinary. This approach draws inspiration from the historical and philosophical legacies of Middle Eastern travelers and scholars like Ibn Battuta and Saadi Shiraz. As an Iranian American woman, my own experience as an immigrant has deeply influenced my artistic practice, and I am driven to produce work that challenges current perspectives on ethics, politics, society, nature, and culture.
ZieherSmith presentations: Untitled Miami Beach (2024); ZieherSmith & Friends (Nashville, 2020)
Born in Tehran Iran. Lives and works in Nashville, TN.
Education
2014 Master of Fine Art, Ceramics, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA.
1999 Bachelor of Fine Art, Studio and Craft, Al-Zahra University, Tehran, Iran.
Selected Solo presentations
2024
The Resonance of the Lands, Exhibition and Performance in Collaboration with Reza Filsoofi, The 204 Gallery, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
Imagined Boundaries, The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC.
2023
Diphtheria, Multimedia Installation, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA.
Listening: The Fourth String, Music Performance in Collaboration with Reza Filsoofi, Ingram Hall, The Blair School of Art, Nashville, TN.
Say Their Names (Against Oblivion), Performance, NCECA’s 57th Annual Conference, Current, Duke Energy Convention Center, Cincinnati, OH.
2022
Debated Narrative, Interactive Multimedia Installation, Engage Project, Chicago, IL.
Listening: The Fourth String, Interactive Multimedia Installations and Performances, The New Gallery, The Department of Art + Design, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN.
Artifacting, Video and Ceramic Objects, Unrequired Leisure Gallery, Nashville, TN.
Bite (Performance) in Conjunction with the Exhibition Between Lands, at the Southern Exposure Gallery in San Francisco, Arrowmont Auditorium, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN.
2021
Bite, Ceramic Objects, Ceramic Objects, Photography, Single Channel Video in Intersection,The Engage Projects, Chicago, IL.
2020
Inh(a/i)bited, Interactive Multimedia Installation, Spinello Project Gallery, Miami, FL.
2019
The Overview Effect, Interactive Multimedia Installation, Betty Foy Sanders Gallery, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA.
2018
On Transcending the Inhibited Space, Interactive Multimedia Installation, O’kane Gallery, University of Houston Downtown, Houston, TX.
2017
Imagined Boundaries, Interactive Multimedia Installation, Abad Gallery, Tehran, Iran.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Bite, One Chanel Video Installation in Dug Deeper, the Vernon Filley Art Museum, Pratt, KS.
Odyssey, One Chanel Video Installation in Women Working with Clay: A Shared Purpose, the Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA.
2023
Odyssey, One Chanel Video Installation in Bold!, Ceramics Biennial, Giertz Gallery, Parkland College, Champaign, IL.
Only Sound Remains and Where is Hezar Afsan?, Multimedia Installations in Thinking Historically in the Presence, Sharjah Biennial 15, Sharjah, The United Arab Emirate.
2022
Imagined Boundaries Episode 3 (Facing the South, Facing the World), Multi-Channel Video Installation in Southern Voices/Global Visions, The R.O.B, Lake City, SC.
Odyssey, One Chanel Video Installation in The Future is Female, 21c Museum Hotel, Nashville, TN.
Bite, Ceramic Objects and Single Channel Video in, 2022 NCECA Annual – Belonging, The Crocker Museum, Sacramento, CA.
A Transient's Paradox, Ceramic Objects, Wire, Sound and Single Channel Video in Fragile Earth, The Grounds for Sculpture Museum, Hamilton, NJ.
Learning the Rope, Three Channel Video Installation in Fail, The Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA.
2021
The 2021 Southern Prize and State Fellowship Recipient Exhibition, A Symmetrical Despondency, Inh(a/i)bited Space and Imagined Boundaries – Episode 2 (Alert; Miscommunication), Multimediaand Interactive installations, The Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus, GA.
Bite, Ceramic Objects and Single Channel Video in Objects of Faith, Healing and Transformation, The Fine Art Gallery at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
Imagined Boundaries, Multimedia Installation in Tenacity, Strohl Art Center, Chautauqua, NY.
2020
Halal #2, Installation in ZieherSmith exhibition, Virgin Hotel, Nashville, TN.
Halal #1, Ceramics and Light in Work Up, C24 Gallery, New York, NY.
2019
Halal #1, Ceramics and Light in Grounded, Spinello Project Gallery, Miami, FL.
A Symmetrical Despondency, Interactive Multimedia Installation in YOU AM I, Veronique Wantz Gallery, NCECA, Minneapolis, MN.
…still traveling, Video in Polyopia, Art Warehouse, Delray Beach, FL.
2018
The Peace Cylinder, Performance in Collaboration with Artist Linda Behar and Musicians Reza Filsoofi and Susana Behar, Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery, Davie, FL.
Imagined Boundaries, Interactive Multimedia Installation, in Dual Frequency, Art and Cultural Center, Hollywood, FL.
2017
…still traveling… Interactive Multimedia Installation, in Frontier, the Second International Ceramic Based Exhibition, Tehran, Iran.
Diphtheria and Soliloquy: the chant of forbidden women, Interactive Multimedia Installations, and One Thousand and One Pain, Mixed Media Installation, in Under the cloths is skin. Under the skin is sound. And her, Bailey Contemporary Art Center, Pompano Beach, FL.
2016
Fragile, Please Handle with Care, Interactive Installation in Breakable, Contemporary Art Museum of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.
Fragile, Please Handle with Care, Interactive Installation, in International Fajr Art Exhibition, Saba Cultural Institution, Tehran, Iran.
Whose Blood is Redder?, Performance and Installation, Collaboration with Artist Linda Behar, in “The Nerve”, Performance Art Festival, FAT Village Art Complex, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
2015
Fragile, Please Handle with Care, Interactive Installation and Performance, in Breakable, The First International Ceramic Based Exhibition, Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran.
The Peace Cylinder, Collaboration with Artist Linda Behar and Musician Reza Filsoofi, The Peace Corps Iran Associate Conference, University of Texas, Austin, TX.
Where is Hezar Afsan?, Interactive Multimedia Installation, in Artistically Speaking: Women’s Roles in Contemporary Society, The Exhibition of Selected South Florida Female Artists, Cornell Museum, Delray, FL.
Where is Hezar Afsan?, Multimedia Installation, Existence, Girls Club Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
2014
Storytellers, Prints and The Peace Cylinder, Performance in Collaboration with Linda Behar, in Southern Exposure: New Work Now, Palm Beach Cultural Council, Lake Worth, FL.
Only Sound Remains, Multimedia Installation, in Confluence, Schmidt Center Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL.
Selected Bibliography
Jenny Gill, Joan Michelle Journal, In the Studio: Raheleh Filsoofi, Joan Mitchell Journal, April 18, 2024..
Maggie Trela, Raheleh Filsoofi of Nashville to be Artist in Residence at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, Number: Inc. Magazine, January 31, 2024.
Laura Hutson Hunter, Raheleh Filsoofi Talks Memory, Ceramics and Winning the Joan MitchellFellowship, Nashville Scene, November 16, 2023.
Rachel Ebio, Revive, Ruckus, May 27, 2023.
Chloe Hogan, Artist Filsoofi Wins Gibbes Museum’s Society 1858 Prize, Charleston City Paper,February 1, 2023.
Farah Abdessamad, No Narrative to Debate: Artist Raheleh Filsoofi Knows Iran, Clay, and Migration,Observer, September 19, 2022.
Jordyn Russell, A creative Force: ‘Tenacity’ honors contemporary female visual artists, paying tribute to 100 years since ratification of 19th amendment, The Chautauqua Daily, July 16, 2021.
Ann Marie Deer Owens, New faculty Raheleh Filsoofi: A bridge between cultures, Vanderbilt University, October 3, 2020.
Eleanor Bishop, Social Sculpture Project Connects School of Art with Natural Resources, The Daily Chautauqua, August 23, 2019.
Whitney Jones, Featured: Raheleh Filsoofi’s ‘On Transcending the Inh(a/i)bited Space’ Exhibition, Cfile Edited by Garth Clark, January 16, 2019.
Meet Raheleh Filsoofi, Interview, VoyageMIA, February 19, 2019.
Suzanne Weaver, ‘Mi vaiaje del rio Grande Valley’, Glasstire (Texas Visual Art), February 22, 2018.
Nancy Moyer, ‘Exhibit Combines Unique Disciplines Through Art’, The Monitor, February 26, 2018.
Daniel A. Flores, ‘UTRGV, IMAS Provide Venues for Inclusive Dialogue, Interdisciplinary Exploration’,The Monitor, February 1, 2018.
Molly Glentzer, Art Daybook: Raheleh Filsoofi’s ‘Inh(a/i)bited Space’, Houston Chronicle, August 29,2018.
Selected Awards and Grants
2023 Joan Michelle Fellowship, New Orleans, LA.
MacDowell Fellowship, Peterborough, NH.
Tennessee Arts Commission Arts Access Grant for The Resonance of the Lands: Finding Identityand Place in Tennessee Through Clay, Music, and Community, Nashville, TN.
2022 Winner, Society 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art, The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston,SC.
The Steinert Family Dean’s Faculty Fellowship in Race, Racial Justice, or Social Justice for 2022-2024, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
2021 Tennessee Arts Commission Arts Access Grant for Listening: The Fourth String, Nashville, TN.
2021 Southern Prize Tennessee State Fellowship, Atlanta, GA.
NCECA Helene Zucker Seeman Curatorial, Research, and Critical Writing Fellowship for Women, The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA).
2020 The Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation Grant, in Collaboration with Dr. Katherine McAllen forCuratorial Project “Uncovered Space” in International Museum of Art and Science, McAllen, TX.
2019 “The Outstanding International Female Faculty Award”, University of Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX.
2018 Paul Hanna Lecture Award, Texas Association School of Art (TASA), South Texas College, McAllen,TX.
2017 South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship Award for Visual and Media Artists, Miami, FL.
2016 Dave Bown Projects - 12th Semiannual Competition (Jurors: Kathleen Goncharov, Irene Hofmann, Al Miner) Award of Excellence, New York, NY.