About the Participants
Fereidoun Ghaffari was born in Tehran, Iran. He studied painting at the University of Art in Tehran, earning a BFA in 1998 and an MFA in 2002. In 2003, he attended a special studies program at Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Sweden. He returned to Tehran in 2004 and taught in universities there until 2006, when he moved to New York and enrolled in the New York Academy of Art, attaining his second MFA in painting in 2008. In 2013, Ghaffari had a solo show of self-portraits at the Tarahan-Azad Gallery in Tehran. His group exhibitions include EDGE (Emkan Gallery, Tehran – 2018); In Between, Contemporary Iranian Art (MANA Contemporary, Jersey City – 2017); VISAGE: Image of Self (O Gallery, Tehran – 2016); and SELF: Portraits of Artists in Their Absence (National Museum Academy of Fine Arts, New York – 2015). Ghaffari lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Phong H. Bui is an artist, writer, independent curator, and Co-Founder and Publisher/Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Rail, Rail Editions, River Rail, and Rail Curatorial Projects. He has organized more than sixty exhibitions since 2000, and has been named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture” by Brooklyn Magazine. Bui has been a Curatorial Advisor at MoMA PS1, as well as a senior critic in the MFA programs at Yale, Columbia, and University of Pennsylvania. He has taught graduate seminars in the MFA programs for Writing and Criticism and Photography, Video, and Related Media at the School of Visual Arts. He has received numerous awards and has served as a board member of many organizations. Bui lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Shoja Azari was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1958. As a teenager, Azari experimented with short films, and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution involved himself in underground culture – literature, theater, and politics. After moving to New York in 1983, he received a Master’s degree in Psychology from New York University. In his work, Azari confronts broad themes of gender, politics, and piety, drawing inspiration from and re-interpreting religious icons. Azari’s work has been exhibited globally, with solo shows throughout Europe and North America. He has participated in exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, at museums such as Germany’s Haus der Kulturen and the MUSAC in Spain, and at art fairs including Art Basel, Switzerland, ARCO, Spain, and Art Dubai. His works are in the permanent collections of various museums and foundations, including the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in the United States, and the Farjam Collection in the UAE. He lives and works in New York.