2023 Terrain Residency

artists in residence

Ziba Rajabi

Ziba Rajabi (b.1988, Tehran, Iran) received her MFA from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and her BFA from the Sooreh University, Tehran. Her primary practice is focused on painting, drawing, and fabric-based installation. She is the recipient of the Artist 360 Grant, a program sponsored by the Mid-America Arts Alliance. Her work has been included in a number of exhibitions, nationally and internationally, such as Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; AR, CICA Museum; South Korea; Masur Museum; LA; 21C Museum, AR; Araan Gallery, Iran; The II Platform, UK, among many others. She has been an artist in residence at Vermont Studio Center as well as Anderson Ranch Arts Center.  

Ziba’s artist statement

As an Iranian female artist based in the US, my work revolves around the desire to reconcile my relationship with two distinctive spaces: Iran (my native land) and the US (where I reside now). In my paintings and installations, I re-create intimate moments culled from my home and neighborhood in Iran. Due to the situation where I am far away from my homeland, I can feel my memories of home fading away. By utilizing memories from my past, I take aspects of images that are no longer recognizable and, therefore, are abstracted into shapes that allude to elements found in my homeland. Consequently, aspects of everyday life such as architecture, furniture, gardens, or a specific time of day become the basis for my work. My desire is to create a situation where the viewer looks at abstract paintings or installations and feels a familiarity, but can’t quite place what it is or why they sense a kinship. By creating this kind of scenario, I can show that regardless of nationality, religion, or gender there are commonalities for all individuals.

zibarajabi.art

Carlos Salazar-Lermont

Carlos Salazar-Lermont is a Venezuelan artist and curator. He received his MFA in Visual Arts from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis as a Danforth Scholar (2022); and a Dual MA in Arts Administration & Policy and Modern and Contemporary Art History in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with the support of the New Artists Society Full Tuition scholarship. Salazar-Lermont’s work has been exhibited internationally in museums, institutions, and galleries in over a dozen countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, England, Finland, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago, the United States, and Venezuela. He is based in Chicago and St. Louis and is a part-time Lecturer at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis, MO.

Carlos’ artist statement

My practice is defined by two branches of research, which reflect a dialogue between extrospection and introspection: On the first one, the most extrospective, I study Latin America’s historical circumstances by deconstructing the social, political, and economic fabrics that define them. I aim to dismantle dehumanizing myths by visualizing the paradoxes between what is said about us and our reality.

With the second branch, I attempt to disclose the underlying Catholic origin of Latin American cultural burdens, such as the glorification of poverty, guilt, and self-humiliation. I use visual codes inherited from the colonial process to reveal these structures. The concept of Vanitas appears constantly in this branch. Originating in the book of Ecclesiastes, it states how the ephemerality of life divests existence from any transcendental sense.

Performativity is the common thread between these branches, expressed in a post-mediatic language. I use everything at my reach–live performance, photography, video, and other forms of time-based media– to express the transformative potential of action.

In my practice, Latinx culture’s interpersonal proximity is key for creating experiences that connect with the audience’s emotions. I use my artistic process to understand my social and political reality more deeply. I seek to make my work a pedagogical device from which my audiences and I can learn more about who we are and our place in history.

carlossalazarlermont.com