Shiva Ahmadi
born 1975, in Tehran, Iran; lives and works in Davis, California, United States
Shiva Ahmadi’s paintings and animations offer a critique of contemporary political conflict through the tradition of Persian miniature painting. The artist moved to the United States from Iran in 1998 and became interested in politics during the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, and while her compositions most often focus on tensions within the Middle East and between the East and West, Ahmadi is ultimately interested in examining the relationship between absolute power and corruption. For the artist, instability and uncertainty are the only universal constants, and their influence is evident in the ever-shifting dynamics of her complex narratives. Ahmadi earned a BA from Azad University in 1998 and MFA degrees from Wayne State University in Detroit in 2003 and the Cranbrook Academy of Arts in Michigan in 2005. She is currently a professor at the University of California, Davis.
