Bio: (300 word)
Sholeh Asgary is an Iranian-born interdisciplinary sound artist whose works implicate the viewer-participant in future mythological excavations, bridging large swathes of time and history through water, water clocks, crude oil, movement, light, imaging, voice, and sound. Asgary's early somatic experiences in constant movement across borders influence her. From this positionality lies an inherent tension throughout her work: between visibility and opacity, history and myth, worldmaking and death--with none in opposition to the other. This complexity drives the core of her work.
Asgary is featured in Art in America's 2022 "New Talent Issue" and has been supported by numerous residencies, including Headlands Center for the Arts, MASS MoCA, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, UCLA ArtSci, and ARoS Kunstmuseum. Her work has been presented through exhibitions, performances, and screenings by such institutions as Sotheby's Institute of Art, Minnesota Street Project, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, Charlotte Street Foundation, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Flux Factory. Asgary is a recipient of a 2021 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant for her solo exhibition at Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY, a 2019 Kenneth Rainin Foundation New Project Grant with Dance Elixir, a 2020 California Arts Council Grant for her program MAJLES, a 2022 SECA (SFMOMA) nominee, a 2022 Center for Cultural Innovation grantee, and recipient of the 2014 Alternative Exposure Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for curatorial initiatives as Curator and Director of Education and Public Programs at Incline Gallery, where she founded The Project Room. Asgary's ongoing collaborative projects include those with Abou Farman, Dena Al-Adeeb, pateldanceworks, and Heather Kapplow. Currently residing in Oakland, CA, she is a Lecturer in the Department of Art Practice at UC Berkeley and CCA and serves on the Southern Exposure Curatorial Council. Asgary holds an MFA from Mills College and BA from San Francisco State University.
