MITRA FABIAN

 

Mitra Fabian is a sculptor and installation artist working almost exclusively with manufactured materials- the leftovers, the by-products, the remnants of human industry. These materials cannot be just any garbage however; they must generate a visceral response on her part. Perhaps it is the material itself, or the shape and size of it. Often she is attracted to the way it conducts or reflects light. As she builds with these materials, she deconstructs them or alters them in such a way that they are not immediately recognizable. The reconstruction is in some way determined by what the material is capable of doing, but not meant to do. The new physical form is always more organic, often mimicking the appearance of natural patterns, landscape, magnified cells, or mold. These materials often perform as a skin – their translucency captures light and plays tricks on the eye- breathing, swaying, or slowly and quietly growing. Her material use serves as a commentary on the increasingly modified condition of humans, which pits nature against culture and blurs the line between organic and manufactured.

Recently, drawing has also become part of her art practice. Often the drawings are contour line or rendered images of her sculptural forms. They allow a different level of expression with her work- sometimes very pattern-based and abstract. Other times the drawings create the opportunity of immersing her sculptural forms in elaborate and sometimes surreal environments not possible in actuality. 

 

Mitra Fabian was born in Iran and raised in Boston.  She received a BA in Art with an Anthropology minor from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.  She located to Los Angeles in 1996 and began to show her work both locally and nationally.  She returned to school in 2002 to receive an MFA from California State University, Northridge.  As of May 2005, she lives and works in the Bay Area.  Fabian has been showing her work nationally since 1997, and had a solo show at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art in 2007.  Her work has also been featured in shows the Museum of Contemporary Craft, the Laguna Art Museum, and the Armory Center for the Arts.  She has also shown with prominent galleries in Los Angeles and San Francisco.  In the summer of 2009, she was an artist in residence at Bemis in Omaha, NE.  Her work has been reviewed by several media organizations including Spark, KQED Television, Ruby Mag, an online Argentinean art magazine, Angeleno Magazine, and Artweek. She is a professor at West Valley College teaching sculpture and ceramics.