Azadeh Gholizadeh: Dawn to Dusk

Goldfinch is pleased to announce “Dawn to Dusk,” a solo exhibition by Azadeh Gholizadeh in Gallery 1. The exhibition is on view from February 27 through April 9, and is accompanied by a full-color catalogue with an essay by Ruslana Lichtzier.

Born in Tehran, Iran and now living and working in Chicago, Azadeh Gholizadeh’s works explore the body, landscape, and the fragmentation of memory through an examination of her own emotional connection to a sense of belonging. She is interested in thinking about the relationship of landscape to memory in a manner described by Simon Schama as “a way of looking; of rediscovering what we already have … instead of being yet another explanation of what we have lost, it is an exploration of what we may find" (Landscape and Memory, 1995, New York: A.A. Knopf, pg. 14).

The tapestries and sculptural installation in Dawn to Dusk explore landscape, pictorial notions of perspective, and hand weaving and embroidery practices as carriers of personal and emotional meaning. Gholizadeh’s tapestries, which typically follow a square or rectangular format, are inspired by the Iranian artist’s experience of looking out through windows at landscapes that spur memories of her past life in Tehran, combined with observations derived from her present locale. When she is weaving or embroidering, she generally adheres to a framework of horizontal and vertical lines so that the final results appear pixelated, as if we are looking at an image that’s been zoomed in so closely, it has lost resolution and clarity. When viewed up close, the individual units, like pixels, become clear but the overall composition is abstracted. “This is how I reflect on the idea of home,” Gholizadeh explains. “[It is something that is] fragile, inconsistent, and perspectival.”

Gholizadeh’s process begins by making a collaged image that combines different viewpoints and depths into a single plane. Then, based on the structure of lines and patterns evinced in the collage study, along with inspiration from Islamic geometric patterns found in Persian gardens and mosques she studied while practicing architecture in Iran, Gholizadeh uses yarn and canvas mesh to embroider the tapestries, staying within a framework of horizontal and vertical lines so that the final results appear pixelated.

Trees are a recurring motif in Dawn to Dusk. “I like looking at trees to explore how absence and distance, desire and a longing for that which is absent can become a form of endurance,” she says, noting her own desire for emotional pain to be transformed through an ongoing conversation between past and present. “I use elements from nature such as clouds, mountain peaks, forests, and leaves because they give me comfort and a sense of refuge. They resonate because one or more components awaken some of my memories, and when all are combined, create a new view.”

Artist's Bio

Azadeh Gholizadeh was born in Tehran, Iran, and now lives and works in Chicago. The artist received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois in 2012; a Masters of Architecture and Urbanism from Iran University of Science & Technology in Tehran, Iran in 2009; and a Bachelor of Architecture from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, Iran in 2006.

Solo exhibitions of Gholizadeh’s work include: Dawn to Dusk at Goldfinch in Chicago, Illinois; Oh, Swallow where do you live in Winter? at Apparatus Projects in Chicago, Illinois; and Within the Threshold at Chicago Artist Coalition’s Bolt Space in Chicago, Illinois.

Group exhibitions that have shown Gholizadeh’s work include: Ten x Ten at Homeroom in Collaboration with Chicago Composers Orchestra in Chicago, Illinois; “Line: Diana Gabriel and Azadeh Gholizadeh” at the Riverside Art Center in Riverside, Illinois; “Between Land and Sky: Azadeh Gholizadeh, Luis Romero, and Soo Shin” at Everybody Gallery in Chicago, Illinois; “Outliers” at the Franklin in Chicago, Illinois; “Transistors” at Ralph Arnold Gallery in Chicago, Illinois; “After Junkspace” at the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation in Chicago, Illinois; “This is the place,” at ACRE in Chicago, Illinois; “Artificial Life,” at the Chicago Artist Coalition in Chicago, Illinois; “Reproducibles” at Museo de Arte de Armenia in Armenia, Colombia and at Espacio el Dorado of Bogota in Bogota, Colombia.

In 2021, Gholizadeh was a finalist for the Hopper Prize. In 2020, the artist was a finalist for the Chicago Artadia Award and the American Muslim Futures award. In 2017, Gholizadeh was the recipient of a Brenda Green Gender Inclusivity Scholarship for participation in the ACRE Residency program. Gholizadeh lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.

Image: Blue Hour, 2021, hand-needlepointed merino wool and alpaca wool on canvas mesh, 42 x 42 inches