Upcoming Exhibitions
May 9, 2025 July 13, 2025
Of Wounds and Songs
MAIN GALLERY
May 9, 2025 July 13, 2025
Where there is power, there is resistance. Negotiating with power and probing the boundaries of imposed societal restrictions can foster creativity and lead to the development of new subjectivities. These ever-evolving resistive tensions form the basis of collective resilience; individuals forge supportive bonds and establish collective identities through their shared experience of subjugation and resistance. In societies under totalitarian rule, individuals and communities develop a multiplicity of ingenious ways to navigate and challenge imbalanced power relations. In the public sphere, resistance may take the form of defiance, protest, or subtle means of circumventing red tape. In the meantime, private spaces shielded from the surveillance of disciplinary power often become venues for self-expression where creativity and freedom of thought thrive.
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​This exhibition featuring the works of Iranian-Canadian artists seeks to explore narratives of resistance, resilience, and adaptability in navigating dichotomous experiences while celebrating singular instances of creative and cultural self-sovereignty that subvert prevailing norms and regulations.
Jurry Member
served as a jury member for the prestigious Leo Awards, recognizing excellence in Canadian film and television.
Previous Exhibitions
March 22–24, 2024.
The 2nd Annual VIVA Exhibition
An Evolving Aesthetics of Interruption
Vancouver’s Iranian Visual Arts Alliance (VIVA) holds its 2nd annual art exhibition at the Yaletown Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre, from March 22–24, 2024. This 3-day art exhibition features the works of 18 accomplished visual artists predominantly based in BC. This year’s exhibition theme is “An Evolving Aesthetics of Interruption”, and it explores the different ways in which local artists represent and react to the relentless change, extreme contradiction, and constant disruption that shapes our times.
Too Far, So Close:
our Début Live Exhibition at Monica Reyes Gallery
MAIN GALLERY
July 18, August 10, 2020
The concerns of artists from crisis-struck regions are intimately connected with the political upheavals and economic crises of their respective homelands; and they instinctively and inevitably make an effort to express these concerns.
In recent years, many such artists have emigrated from their native countries, and have reflected on their political (and politicized) identities, and the presentation of those identities in contexts and spaces that are foreign to them.
This has come about from the Eurocentric art market--a market that functions according to its buyers’ exigencies and a so called “global outlook,” rather than an intention to support, protect, and preserve multiple identities and diverse world views. In the realm of Western Art, such identities that fall “outside the global outlook” are viewed, critiqued, and prosecuted through an isolationist lens.
The artists whose work are gathered here tackle the systems of power inside and outside their homelands, both of which render them isolated and "exoticized.
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in this exhibition, Banafsheh Modaressi’s work explores the aesthetics of context. She questions the creative force working within and transcending certain moral, religious, or ideological frameworks of revolution and war. She uncovers the nature of this transcendence, how the magnitude of transgressions is so often entrenched in the context of where a person lives or where they are from.
Exposition des boursiers du gouvernement français
Galerie du Crous • Paris 06. 5 juin âžœ 16 juin
La Galerie du Crous de Paris, située au 11 rue des Beaux-Arts, programme chaque année une vingtaine d’expositions individuelles ou collectives. Elle valorise la création étudiante et celle des jeunes artistes diplômés des écoles d’art et de l’université, et développe des partenariats avec le monde associatif et les institutions.Ne traitant ni d’un genre ni d’un médium en particulier, cet espace de 160m2 représente l’opportunité pour les jeunes artistes d’être accompagnés dans l’exposition de leur travail, et aux étudiants de découvrir la jeune création contemporaine.
La Galerie du Crous de Paris est un service culturel du Crous de Paris, sous la tutelle du Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur.
I love this city
La Cité internationale des arts • Paris 4. 25 September âžœ 25October
drawing ∙ painting. photo ∙ video Installation
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Banafshe Modaressi’s video art installation and painting exhibition at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris was a compelling exploration of identity, displacement, and the interplay between memory and space. Blending cinematic storytelling with immersive visual experiences, her installation utilized multi-layered projections, soundscapes, and abstract imagery to evoke themes of cultural fragmentation and personal resilience. Her paintings, marked by bold textures and intricate compositions, extended these narratives, reflecting the tensions between tradition and modernity. Through this exhibition, Modaressi invited audiences to engage in a deeply introspective journey, questioning the evolving dynamics of cultural heritage in an era of globalization.
Les Rencontres internationales
Avec Banafsheh (Violet) Modaressi
Banafshe Modaressi’s short animation “Forbidden Tree” was featured on Les Rencontres Internationales as part of Arte Creative TV’s curated program, showcasing innovative and boundary-pushing works in contemporary cinema and digital arts. The film, blending poetic visuals with surrealist storytelling, explores themes of repression, identity, and resilience through a deeply symbolic narrative. Known for her multidisciplinary approach, Modaressi uses hand-drawn animation, experimental textures, and dreamlike sequences to craft a visually arresting piece that challenges conventional storytelling. “Forbidden Tree” resonated with audiences for its profound emotional depth and striking artistic vision, further cementing her reputation as a bold and visionary filmmaker in the international arts scene.
In this collective exhibition organized by the Fédération Internationale Culturelle Féminine de Paris, held at Niavaran Cultural Center, Banafsheh present a striking series of abstract photographs enlarged and printed on 42” x 57” canvases. This exhibition brought together prominent female artists from around the world, highlighting diverse artistic perspectives on identity, transformation, and cultural expression. Modaressi’s work stood out for its fluid compositions, evocative textures, and interplay between light and shadow, capturing the ephemeral nature of memory and perception. Through this series, she invited viewers to engage in a deeply introspective experience, challenging conventional boundaries between photography and painting.
The 2nd Sculpture Biennial
in the 2nd Sculpture Biennial at the Tehran Museum of Modern Art, presenting a series of sculptural works constructed from photographic images. In these pieces, she experimented with the fusion of photography and three-dimensional form, layering and assembling images to create sculptures that challenged the traditional boundaries between visual storytelling and spatial art. Her work explored themes of memory, fragmentation, and identity, transforming static photographs into dynamic, tactile objects that invited viewers to engage with images beyond the flat surface. By reimagining photography as a sculptural medium, Modaressi introduced a thought-provoking dialogue on perception, materiality, and the evolving nature of visual art.
Solo Photo Exhibition
Banafshe Modaressi’s solo photography exhibition at Elaheh Art Gallery featured a compelling series of street posters, exploring themes of identity, erasure, and the ephemeral nature of urban expression. Through a unique visual language that combined tearing, layering, and distortion, Modaressi recontextualized the aesthetics of public imagery, reflecting on the impermanence of human presence in the urban landscape.
The series, characterized by fragmented portraits and deconstructed faces, created a dialogue between visibility and obscurity, mirroring the tension between personal identity and collective anonymity in public spaces. The raw textures and distressed surfaces of the works evoked the passage of time, memory, and forgotten narratives, inviting viewers to engage with the emotional and political undertones of these altered images.
Modaressi’s approach transformed familiar urban visuals into poetic, almost haunting reflections of contemporary existence, reinforcing her ability to weave conceptual depth with aesthetic boldness in her photographic practice.
Kaveh Golestan
