Panteha Abareshi
Panteha Abareshi | |
|---|---|
| پانتهآ ابارشی | |
| Born | Template:Birth year and age Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Education | University of Southern California |
| Occupation | conceptual visual artist |
| Notable work | For Medical Use Only (2019), NOT A BODY (2021), FETISH MATERIAL (2023), OBJECT dESIRE (2024) |
| Website | www |
Panteha Abareshi (; born 1999) is a multidisciplinary artist and curator of Canadian origin who works primarily in installation art, video art, and performance art. With Jamaican and Iranian heritage, their creative practice centers on themes of chronic illness and disability. Abareshi resides in Los Angeles, California, and uses the pronouns they/them/theirs.
Early life
Abareshi was born in 1999 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and grew up in Tucson, Arizona. Raised mainly by their single father, they come from a Jamaican mother and an Iranian father. At the age of two, they were diagnosed with Sickle cell zero beta thalassemia, a hereditary blood disorder that results in persistent pain worsening over time.
Education
Abareshi completed their studies at the University of Southern California’s Roski School of Art and Design, where they were mentored by Jennifer West. Their artistic output is deeply informed by personal experiences with chronic illness, addressing subjects such as medical violence, representation, and the physicality of materials. The 2019 video piece For Medical Use Only notably inspired fellow artist Carolyn Lazard. In January 2020, Abareshi was featured on the cover of Bitch Magazine (spring 2020, issue 86) and released an art publication titled Panteha Abareshi: I Am Inside the Body through Sming Sming Books. They earned the 2021 VSA Emerging Artists Competition award presented by the Kennedy Center.
Exhibitions
- 2017 – Participated in the group show The Body As Site Of at Lippitt House hosted by Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island
- 2020 – Contributed to Art4Equality x Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness, a group exhibition accompanied by a public billboard campaign in Brooklyn, New York City
- 2020 – Included in Shape Open 2020: The Future is Loading (Part II), organized by Shape Arts in London, England
- 2021 – Presented solo exhibition Panteha Abareshi: Tender Calamities at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) during the COVID-19 pandemic
- 2021 – Featured in “Well/Being: An Exhibition on Healing and Repair” at University Art Museum
Filmography
- Infanticide (2018), video performance
- Not Better Yet (2019), created using Super 8 and VHS film formats
- For Medical Use Only (2019), produced on 8 mm and hi8 film
- For Parts (2020), VHS video
See also
- List of Jamaican artists
- List of Iranian artists
External links
- 1999 births
- Living people
- University of Southern California alumni
- American installation artists
- American video artists
- American performance artists
- American people of Jamaican descent
- Canadian emigrants to the United States
- Canadian people of Jamaican descent
- Canadian people of Iranian descent
- Artists from Los Angeles
- Artists from Montreal
- Artists from Tucson, Arizona
- American queer artists
- American non-binary artists
- People with sickle-cell disease
- American artists with disabilities
- 21st-century African-American artists
- 21st-century American artists
- American artists of Iranian descent
- Iranian people with disabilities
- Canadian artists with disabilities
- Canadian non-binary artists
- 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people
- Canadian queer artists
- LGBTQ people with disabilities
- Artists with disabilities