Aphrodite Désirée Navab - Goddess Rising: Black & Blue

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 17

5 - 8 PM

@RIVAA Gallery

Aphrodite Navab received her BA magna cum laude in Visual Arts from Harvard College and her Ed.D in Art Education from Columbia University. Through her art and activism, Navab mines her Iranian and Greek heritage, calling forth its competing histories, myths, and politics and tracing its impact on her personal identity. It is in the process of Navab’s art that she relocates her place between Iran, Greece and the United States.

Her latest series, “Goddess Rising: Black & Blue,” (2024-present) consists of performance art monoprints with marks made by the artist’s own body and personal belongings. Navab takes on her native city Isfahan’s ancient textile tradition of Ghalamkar (Farsi for pen and ink work). Using woodblocks to stamp the foundational pattern of her childhood, Navab immerses it in blue and black ink, adding layers and layers for the years that her family has lived in exile. In addition to woodblocks which can be used by anyone anywhere, Navab inks up her belongings, wears them, then stamps herself on paper, in her own passport of exile.

This series is in solidarity with Iranian women protesting gender apartheid in her homeland, Iran. From private to public, body to paper, personal to universal, and concrete to abstract, Navab’s art series are invitations for collective imagination and action, where art and activism can meet, picturing a landscape without gender apartheid.

The exhibition is on view at RIVAA Gallery from May 15-25. Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday, May 17 from 5-8 PM.