Aryana Minai

Aryana Minai (b. 1994) makes paper-based sculptures and wall works that are intimately linked to philosophies and histories of architecture, migration, labor, the body, and the handmade, centering her practice on lived diasporic experience as she draws from her personal archive of decontextualized Iranian-American content. Her large paper pulp paintings reference the walled gardens of Iran and the dimensions of Los Angeles day laborers' pickup truck beds. These spaces, laden with cycles of labor and rest, serve as metaphors for both mental and physical exertion, prompting the artist to question the enduring nature of memory in the body pushed to exhaustion. Minai received a BFA from Art Center College of Design in 2016, an MFA from Yale School of Art in 2020, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Select solo exhibitions include James Fuentes, New York; Ochi Projects, Los Angeles; and Steve Turner, Los Angeles.