This Friday, November 21st, Loyola Marymount University and I will host a presentation titled “Middle Eastern Visual Arts in American Culture” in my LMU History of Design class at 12:15 pm. The event is free and open to everyone.
America’s focus on the Middle East has never been more intense and significant. And the visual arts of this region are extremely vital to any rich and meaningful appreciation of its society and values. This is even more so here in Los Angeles, with our thriving Arabic and Iranian population. Artists Maece Seirafi and Pouya Jahanshahi are experts on the topic, and they’ll provide us with enlightening and in-depth insights which will shed light on its relevance to our own culture.
Maece is an L.A.-based graphic designer and curator who grew up in Damascus, Syria, and maintains a passion for letterforms of all languages. Iranian-born Pouya is a filmmaker and Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Oklahoma State University, College of Arts and Science.
Together they’ll explore issues of identity, tradition, and transition as expressed by major visual artists from Morteza Momayez, the father of Iranian graphic design, to Majid Abbasi and Reza Abedini, masters at contemporizing traditional Persian calligraphy and dynamically blending text with images. They’ll also deal with the ways in which the cross-pollination of societies have produced new visual realms and typographic forms. Their talk will be followed by a discussion.
To learn more in advance you can read my interview with Maece and Pouya about their own influences and inspirations – and the recent L.A. exhibition they curated on Arabic and Iranian design – by clicking here.
This event is being held under the auspices of KaleidoLA, the Speaker Series of LMU’s Department of Art and Art History.
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I hope you’ll join us. Here are the vital details…
> Friday, November 21st, 12:15 pm
> Loyola Marymount University
> Room 211, Burns Fine Art Center
> 1 LMU Drive, L.A. 90045
> parking $10, details here.
> PDF maps with campus and room directions here and here.
above: two posters by Pouya Jahanshahi.
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above: Reza Abedini
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above: Morteza Momayez
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above: Majid Abbasi
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above: Maece Seirafi
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