Gelare Khoshgozaran

Artist’s Statement

My practice is about the displacement and disorientation of individual bodies as well as objects, sounds, words and images due to political circumstances and colonialist models of circulation. Through various translational processes, my work subsumes the violence, restraints and constructions of language in the formation of the “transnational.” Through performance and video, I utilize a constant perversion of pop culture elements for subversive engagement and critical dialogue. I explore exile as a queer space, lag as queer temporality, non-citizenship and statelessness as forms of queer resistance.

Born and raised in Tehran, and living in Los Angeles, I envision the city as an imaginary space between asylum as “the protection granted by a nation to someone who has left their native country as a political refugee” and the more dated meaning of the word, “an institution offering shelter and support to people who are mentally ill.”

Website: gelarekhoshgozaran.com

Biography

Select Solo Exhibitions from 2010-2014

2014
The Drone Operator, performance at Discostan in partnership with the LA Islam Arts Initiative, Los Angeles

2012
The Flirtatious Pirouette of the Artist Around His Subject [sic], USC Roski School of Fine Arts Gallery, Los Angeles

Select Group Exhibitions from 2010-2014

2014
Shangri La: Imagined Cities, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles

2014
Theory of Survival: Fabrications, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco

2013
A Bomb, With Ribbon Around It, Queens Museum of Art, New York

2013
Nietzsche Was A Man, Museo Ex-Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico

Select Awards and Residencies

2015-2016
Santa Fe Art Institute Emigration/Immigration Residency

2014
Rema Hort Mann Yo Yo Yo Artist Grant (with Shagha Ariannia)

2012
Meta Young Art Critic Award, artgenève 2012

2011
Neely Macomber Travel Award, USC Roski School of Fine Arts

Select Community Work

2015
White Noise/Black Gold, co-curation at PØST, Los Angeles

2015
¡YAhora: Una aventura del leer y escuchar! / A Reading and Listening Adventure! Antena and &now conference, Avenue 50 Studio, Los Angeles

2014
Shangri La: Imagined Cities, contribution to exhibition catalog, commissioned by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

2014
Dialogs of Diversity Workshop, California State University Stanislaus, Turlock

EDUCATION

M.F.A., 2011
University of Southern California

B.F.A., 2009
University of Art, Tehran