I combine existing and imagined personal memories with artistic and literary references to create complex installations that blur the distinction between fantasy and fact. My approach to painting employs layered storytelling. It comprises a rich, tactile assortment of images that linger on enough to remind you of sounds, places, or even written phrases.
I place paintings within immersive environments comprising built objects, sculptures, drawings, and architectural assemblages rendered complicit within the overarching narrative of the installation.
In my studio, I search for unfamiliar and imagine unexpected alternative environments. I strive to create a world that I can experience out of reach, and the joy of sharing that experience keeps me going. A solid narrative impulse drives my practice, resulting in immersive installations with entwined storylines that combine fiction and reality. My paintings, installations, and site-specific works refer to commonplace and expected connections between what we see and our perception of it. Growing up in Iran, literature and architecture are my muse. Words in Farsi are visually powerful. Language became more prominent in my work when I migrated to the US and was forced to describe my deepest emotions in a foreign language; I wonder if I have been able to communicate in a literal language during the last ten years. Visual language, painting, and their transformation into installation became more urgent.
Farima Fooladi
Farima Fooladi was born in Tehran, Iran, in a transition period from Monarchy to the Islamic Republic and theocracy. She lives in Houston, TX. She teaches at the University of Houston.
Fooladi completed her MFA and taught at Penn State University before moving to Houston, TX. Recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant for June 2023 to June 2024, Fooladi is looking forward to expanding my studio practice into another side of an urban life and city experience for marginalized citizens by asking the following questions: How does diversity play a role in hospitality concerning urban life? What part of your identity survives, and what part hibernates for the latest reinvention?
Her painting titled “Mirage” was purchased with the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (MOCA) ‘s support for Houston Airports iin 2020 to add to the Civic Art Collection at Houston Airports. She is fascinated by the lasting impact of collective trauma caused by Invasion, Migration, and displacement. The transformation of civic spaces caused by social and political changes particularly interests her. Fooladi’s 8th solo show opened on January 15, 2022, at Smack Mellon in Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY. After her solo show in Dumbo Brooklyn, she interviewed with BBC. Her recent painting has been published in the New American Paintings, No 162. Fooladi got nominated and became an artist in residence in the fourth iteration of Artists on Site at the Asia Society, Houston, in the Summer of 2023.
Website: farimafooladi.com
Instagram: @farimafooladi