Meet Parvin Peivandi of Studio Parvin Peivandi in Downtown Chicago

Today we’d like to introduce you to Parvin Peivandi.

Parvin, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My journey as a contemporary artist started ten years ago by immigrating to the West. I immigrated to Vancouver, Canada to study at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design and educate myself about the Western contemporary art. Before my immigration, I had spent most of my life in Iran and witnessed multiple histories that are tied to some of the histories and foreign policies of the United States. When I was a kid, the Islamic revolution happened in Iran that brought a strong sense of control and religious domination for people. Then, the devastating war between Iran and Iraq occupied all my elementary school’s years. I can tell I grew up under harsh political climates, dictatorship, bombardment, censorship, executions, rations, and sanctions. But with all these, I think my far memories revive the feeling of community, care, and affections. War was destructive but a support of family, friendship, and care between people made us survive emotionally and learn to be resourceful. I think those years heavily impacted my art making and personality. It has been always my attempt to raise awareness about the importance of social justice in our communities by being sensitive to the power dynamics and vulnerabilities that exist in our interactions with other people or the environment. I believe the strongest arts are the ones that slow us down and make us reflect on our body and our relationship to other modes of beings, weather animate or inanimate things. When we develop sensitivity to others, we expand and grow.

My journey has not been an easy one. I went through lots of challenges on my way. I immigrated to Vancouver with my child and my husband in 2009. In the early years, we found it very difficult to survive financially. My husband started working as an apprenticeship in gas fitting and I was working in the Vancouver Art Gallery as a security guard while studying sculpture and painting as a full-time student at the same time. Most days, after classes ended in the University, I went to VAG and worked as a security guard in the evening’s artist talks or events. I had a hard time realizing my situation there as I was an artist myself obliged to stand on my feet for long hours and be almost mute for the duration of my working hours. I did this job while studying in Art school for five years and graduated in Bachelor of Fine Arts with honor in 2014 with recognition of my final work in graduation show. After graduation from Emily Carr University, I faced new challenges. My husband who was tired of working long hours in an abusive workplace went back to Iran and wanted me to follow him or separate. That left me in a huge dilemma of picking between my family or artistic career. How could I survive without the care and support of my family? what were the means to survive alone? This difficult condition took us five years to finally make our decisions. I decided to land on my feet again by trusting myself. To continue living as an artist and making art, I studied art education at the University of British Colombia. I became an art teacher with two awards for developing the new contemporary art curriculum. Since then, I taught and I have had different art exhibitions in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Iran. My works are in private collections around the world and two of my artworks are held in the art museum of the Olympic Academy in Tehran.

In 2017, I decided to take a risk and immigrate to the United States in order to develop my artistic career and international networking. I got two merit scholarships and a graduate research fellowship to be a graduate fellow and research assistant in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I had a hard time, in the beginning, to start all over again, but through the supportive community of SAIC, I managed to establish myself. I have a beautiful studio in Sullivan galleries in downtown Chicago and I have the privilege of being in the circle of amazing artist/scholars in town while being close to the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago. The United States, particularly Chicago is a great place for ambitious, hardworking artists who seek wider audiences for their cultural activities. I am thrilled to participate in two upcoming major art shows in Chicago and I am looking forward to the next upcoming years to come and let me work as an artist while serving the communities and raising awareness of the importance of care and compassion between us.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Studio Parvin Peivandi – what should we know?
I am an interdisciplinary artist working in diverse mediums and techniques. Mostly I make Installations made of sculptures and paintings. I have worked in ceramics, painting, sculptures, drawing, performance, sound, Installation and video art.

I am an artist of excess. I work with conventional and non-conventional materials such as black engine oil and tar. Some of my works are made of old Persian nomadic rugs that I brought from Iran since 2012. Every year, I traveled to Iran and visited far villages and got tribal nomadic rugs that were worn out and were close to being dismantled to threads. Each year, I brought one suitcase of these rugs to Canada and to me this project was a rescue project. I was thinking of these rugs as refugee bodies that I felt an urgency to save their life. I use these rugs in my artworks as installation or material for my sculptures. My attempt is the change of the status of these objects to high art and also play with the perception of the audiences of these rugs. Rugs that no longer let the people step on them, but are art objects of high status that demands more care and attention.

In most of my artworks, I criticize the dominant structures and systems of power that govern our life. Through fragmentation of the familiar systems, deconstruction, re-imagination, and juxtaposition of different materials, I interrogate the identity politics and perceptions around gender, race and cultural differences.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I grew as an artist with the help and support of like-minded artists and scholars that have had a strong sense of compassion at first place and then posses the international mindedness. My supporters were open-minded individuals that respected me for my passion for art and humanity and helped me to achieve my goals. They were interested in my art and journey and wanted to be part of this journey by buying my art, collecting my works, coming to my shows and nominating me for awards and scholarships. Al the people who supported me bought my art or responded to my works are part of my success. There were times that my advocates came to me and said they really wanted to help me because following art was their dream but they did not pursue it because of the fear of financial risks that exist in an artist’s life. I love and respect their honesty and their generosity to me.

My mentors have been also American artist/scholars in my universities in the United States and Canada such as Arnold Kemp, Lisa Vinebaum, Ann Wilson, Joan Livingstone, Diana Guerrero Macia, David Getsy also Canadian artists/scholars such as ; professor Paul Mathew, Patrik Andersson, Dr Ron Burnett, Juli York, George Rammell to name a few.

Contact Info:

• Address: 525 West Deming Pl, Apt# 504 .Chicago, IL 60614
• Phone: 312-771-7141
• Email: parvinpeivandi@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parvinpeivandi/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/parvin.peivandi/media_set?set=a.4137393746903.2160078.1045404992&type=3

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