Avish Khebrehzadeh (Iranian, b. 1969) was born in Iran, afterwards lived in Madagascar, United Kingdom, United States, and Italy.
Khebrehzadeh’s work strongly reflects a sense of dislocation and agitation resulting from her experiences living in different countries throughout her life.
In her work, she calls forth an imagined reality through the use of unusual media such as olive oil and resin on paper. However her drawings, paintings, and animation are firmly attached to her background. A sense of mystery in the artist’s work bestows a space for the viewer’s imagination, as the artist says: “Mystery is good… I don’t want things definable.”
Khebrehzadeh studied painting at the Accademia Di Belle Arti Di Roma and photography at the Corcoran College of Art in Washington, DC. Khebrehzadeh participated in The International Istanbul Biennial (1999), the Cologne Kunst Film Biennale (2003) and the Biennale di Venezia (2003) where she received the Leone d’ Oro Prize for the best Italian Young Artist.
Other awards include an Artist Fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities in 2011, a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship also in 2011, and Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship in 2012.
