Exhibition: “Ornament and Crime: Parastou Forouhar” in Macalester’s Law Warschaw Gallery

St. Paul, Minn. – Iranian-born, internationally known artist, Parastou Forouhar, presented a solo exhibition at Macalester’s Law Warschaw Gallery.  The exhibition, “Ornament and Crime,” opened Fri., Feb. 8 and was curated by Joanna Inglot, chair and associate professor of Macalester’s Art and Art History department.

The exhibition featured photographs, digital drawings, balloons, flip-books, and other designed elements that reflect on the social and political power in contemporary Iran, and on Forouhar’s personal trauma and violence that has touched her own life, such as when her parents (prominent intellectuals and political activists in Iran) were assassinated in 1998. 

The opening reception for “Ornament and Crime” was Fri., Feb., 8, from 7 – 9 p.m. in the Law Warschaw Gallery, 130 Macalester Street, St. Paul, Minn. The exhibition ran from Feb. 8 – March 10.  Gallery hours: M-W and F, 10 am – 4 pm; Thu. 10 am – 8 pm; Sat. and Sun., noon – 4 pm.

Forouhar discussed her exhibition at an artist’s talk, Mon., Feb. 11, at 5 pm, in Hewitt Hall, in the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center.  All events were free and open to the public.

Parastou Forouhar was born in Tehran in 1962. She studied art at the University of Tehran from 1984 to 1990 and continued her studies at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (High School for Design) in Offenbach am Main, Germany. She currently resides in Frankfurt.

Forouhar has had various solo exhibitions throughout the world. They include Blind Spot, Stavanger Cultural Centre, Norway, and Golestan Art Gallery, Tehran (banned by the Iranian authorities), 2001; A Thousand and One Days, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, 2003; Just a Minute, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome, 2007; He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not, Verso Arte Contemporanea, Turin, 2010; Parastou Forouhar, Leighton House Museum, London, 2010; Parastou Forouhar, RH Gallery, New York, 2010–11; and Written Room, Fondazione Merz, Turin, 2011. 

Forouhar’s art has also been presented in many important group exhibitions including Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum, 2007; and The Fertile Crescent: Gender, Art, and Society at the Rutgers Institute for Women and Art, 2012.

Macalester College, founded in 1874, is a national liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 2,035 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, multiculturalism, and civic engagement. Learn more at macalester.edu