Maryam Amirvaghefi

Maryam Amirvaghefi (b. 1989) lives and works in Fayetteville, AR. A lifelong sports fan, Maryam was unable to attend many athletic events in Iran due to gendered restrictions. It was one year after Maryam left Iran in 2015 that she would begin her series exploring the politics and performance of gender in sports. Interested in issues such as the wage gap, authoritarianism, and victory, Maryam began creating collaged jerseys as a way to visually extrapolate these themes. Much of her source material comes from the news and the internet, through which she has access to the visual information that she was once denied. Figures, texts, and symbols such as candles and flowers are intertwined in Maryam’s works. Together, these visuals create optical illusions, a nod to the illusions resulting from censorship in female sports; in this way, that which is meant to be suppressive becomes reclamatory. Maryam’s practice is composed of mixed media, painting, sculpture, and video. Maryam is currently the Assistant Director of Exhibitions and an instructor at the University of Arkansas School of Art. She received her BFA in painting from Sooreh Art University in 2013 and her MFA in painting from the University of Arkansas School of Art in 2017. Her work has been exhibited in Iran, Russia, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and the United States.