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Golanaz Fathi, calligrapher and graphic designer, was born in 1972 in Tehran. Her path toward calligraphy began in adolescence, inspired by her father’s deep appreciation for the art. At the age of thirteen, she joined the Iranian Calligraphers Association, where she trained for three years under the guidance of Abdollah Faradi. In 1995, she graduated in Graphic Design from Islamic Azad University of Tehran, and in the same year received the award for the Best Iranian Woman Calligrapher in the field of manuscript calligraphy. A year later, she obtained her diploma in calligraphy from the Iranian Calligraphers Society. Until then, Fathi had pursued painting as a self-taught practice. Ultimately, she chose painting over classical calligraphy. In 1996, she held her first exhibition of calligraphic paintings at Seihoun Gallery. In that body of work, she employed her calligraphic experience in the form of free and expressive script, placing it in service of painting. In her subsequent explorations, she pushed calligraphy further toward abstraction. Although her work achieved relative recognition within Iran, over time she reduced her presence in the domestic art scene and shifted her focus to international art circles. With strategic insight and a keen understanding of the dynamics of the global art world, she successfully secured her position in international art markets. Her works have been exhibited across Scandinavia, Australia, and numerous other countries. Notable among these are her solo exhibition at Tird Line Gallery in Dubai in 2013, her solo show at Sundaram Tagore Gallery in New York in the same year, and her solo exhibition at October Gallery in London in 2014. Several of her works are held in major international institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Brighton Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in India, and the Singapore Museum.
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Solo Exhibitions
2002
Solo Exhibition, Golestan Gallery, Tehran
2013
Solo Exhibition, The Living Road, Pearl Lam Fine Art, Shanghai
Solo Exhibition, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York
Solo Exhibition, Falling Leaves, Tird Line, Dubai
2014
Solo Exhibition, Dance with Me Until the End of the Night, October Gallery, London
2015
Solo Exhibition, Every Retarding Wave, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Hong Kong
2022
Solo Exhibition, Unspoken Symphony, Opera Gallery, Beirut
Solo Exhibition, The Road Ahead, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York
2024
Solo Exhibition, Beyond Words, Sahar Ballouki Gallery, Toronto
Group Exhibitions
1993
Second Painting and Miniature Exhibition, Tehran International Permanent Fairground
Drawing and Painting Exhibition
Iranian Painting Biennial, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
1994
Art University Students’ Exhibition, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
Group Exhibition of Women Artists, Turkey
1995
Art Students’ Exhibition, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
Group Exhibition, Second Student Art Competition, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
1996
Group Exhibition, Calligraphy Festival, Seihoun Gallery, Tehran
Group Exhibition, Reza Abbasi Museum, Tehran
1997
Group Exhibition, Seihoun Gallery, Tehran
First Islamic World Calligraphy Festival, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
1998
Group Exhibition, Seihoun Gallery, Tehran
2001
Group Exhibition, Ten Iranian Women Painters, Brussels
Group Exhibition, House of Books, Brussels
Group Exhibition, Saint-Gilles City Hall, Belgium
Group Exhibition, Golestan Gallery, Tehran
Group Exhibition, CourtYard Gallery, Dubai
Group Exhibition, Meridian International Center, Washington, D.C.
2002
Group Exhibition, Golestan Gallery, Tehran
Group Exhibition, Dan O’Melveny Gallery, Los Angeles
Group Exhibition, New Iranian Art, Art Museum of Southeast Texas
Group Exhibition, New Iranian Art, Queens Library, New York
2003
Group Exhibition, Williams Tower Gallery, Houston
Group Exhibition, National Arts Club, New York
Group Exhibition, Sguardo di Padova, Italy
Group Exhibition, New Iranian Art, Plano Arts Center, Texas
2011
Group Exhibition, Written Images: Contemporary Middle Eastern Calligraphy, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York
Group Exhibition, The Art of Writing, Wiesbaden Art Association, Germany
Group Exhibition, Transavantgarde: Contemporary Art from Around the World, October Gallery, London
2012
Group Exhibition, Alternative Perspective: Three Generations of Iranian Women, Mellat Gallery, Tehran
Group Exhibition, Written Images, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Hong Kong
Group Exhibition, The Other Half of Iran, Sam Art Gallery, Monaco
Group Exhibition, Global Stories – Voices of the World, Brighton Museum, UK
Group Exhibition, Masters of the Transavantgarde, October Gallery, London
Group Exhibition, The Elephant in the Dark, Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi
Additional Group Exhibitions (untitled), same year
2013
Group Exhibition, Contemporary Islamic Calligraphy: Nun wa al-Qalam, Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia
Group Exhibition, Pen: The Art of Fine Writing, Birmingham Museum, UK
Group Exhibition, Being Woman, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Singapore
2014
Group Exhibition, Approaches to Tradition: Neo-Traditionalism in Contemporary Iranian Art, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
Group Exhibition, Marked, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Hong Kong
Group Exhibition, Marked, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York
Group Exhibition, 35 Years of Transavantgardism, October Gallery, London
Group Exhibition, Unveiling the Greater Middle East, Opera Gallery, London
2015
Group Exhibition, International Calligraphy Exhibition, Wafi, Dubai
Participation in Venice Biennale, The Imagined Border, Palazzo Grimani Museum, Italy
Group Exhibition, Writing Non-Writing, Hangzhou Museum of Contemporary Art, China
Group Exhibition, Islamic Art, Opera Gallery, London
2018
Group Exhibition, Moments, Nicolas Flamel Gallery, Paris
Group Exhibition, #WeToo, Salsali Private Museum, Dubai
2019
Group Exhibition, Atlas of My Dreams, Nicolas Flamel Gallery, Paris
2020
Group Exhibition, Transformation, Pearl Lam Gallery, Shanghai
Group Exhibition, For Beirut with Love, Opera Gallery, London
2021
Group Exhibition, Collector 9, Artibition Gallery, Tehran
Group Exhibition, Asian Art Galleries, Denver Art Museum
Group Exhibition, Iranian Basketball Becomes…, Nicolas Flamel Gallery, Paris
Group Exhibition, 20+, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York
2022
Group Exhibition, Spring Frame, Khak Gallery, Tehran
Group Exhibition, Resize, Artibition Gallery, Tehran
2023
Group Exhibition, Reorientation | The Space Between, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York
Group Exhibition, Iranian Abstraction, Simin Paris, Paris
Group Exhibition, Transavanguardia: The Free Style Code, October Gallery, London
Group Exhibition, Algoria, Khak Gallery, Tehran
Group Exhibition, The Space Around Us, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York
2024
Group Exhibition, Vital Force, October Gallery, London
Group Exhibition, Eastern Gaze: Meaning and Materiality in Contemporary Asian Art, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York
Art Fairs
2011
Art Fair Hong Kong, Pearl Lam Fine Art, China
2018
Art Fair, Florida, Sundaram Tagore Gallery
Art Miami, Sundaram Tagore Gallery
2019
Art Miami, Sundaram Tagore Gallery
Zona Maco, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Mexico City
2020
Art Paris, Opera Gallery, Paris
Contemporary Istanbul, Khak Gallery, Istanbul
Intersect Art & Design, Khak Gallery, Kinsau
2021
Art Dubai, Khak Gallery, Dubai
Contemporary Istanbul, Khak Gallery, Istanbul
2022
Art Paris, Opera Gallery, Paris
2023
Expo Chicago, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York
Zona Maco, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Mexico City
Awards
1993
Honorable Mention, Drawing and Painting Exhibition
1995
Best Woman Calligrapher in Manuscript Calligraphy, Iranian Calligraphers Association, Tehran
2011
Young Global Leader Award, World Economic Forum, Geneva
