MITRA FABIAN
installing B9 at JayJay, Sacramento CA
read the review here
UPCOMING
Clay Sustains: Vessels of Change, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA
Billis Williams Gallery in Los Angeles, CA
Solo & Partner Exhibitions
2025 Seeping through Domestic Dissonance, NUMU (New Museum), Los Gatos, CA
2022 Arrival Window, Minnow Arts, Santa Cruz, CA
2019 Iterations, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Recent Work, Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
2017 Evolving Networks, Ampersand International Arts, San Francisco, CA
Natural Conduct, Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, Oakland, CA
2016 Unearthly Forms, Kaneko Gallery, American River College, Sacramento, CA
2015 New Work, Start-Up Art Fair, San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA
2014 On Site, Thacher Gallery, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
2013 Stratagems, Hinge Modern, Culver City, CA
2012 Concentric, Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
2008 Accumulations, Kondos Gallery, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA
2007 Propagation, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
Disproportionate Priorities, Bandini Art, Culver City, CA
2005 Room for Recovery, MFA Thesis Show, California State University, Northridge
2004 Surface Treatment, Gallery 825, Bergamot Annex, Santa Monica, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 In Flux, Koumicho Kogen Art Museum, Nagano, Japan
2023 Glimpse, Radius Gallery, Santa Cruz, CA
2019 The New Domestics, Delta College, Stockton, CA
Once at Present, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA
2018 The New Domestics: Finding Beauty in the Mundane, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA
2016 Post Waste, South Bay Contemporary, San Pedro, CA
2015 Botanica, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
2014 Group Show, Supernatural, San Francisco, CA
2013 Infinity + 1, Arena 1, Santa Monica, CA
Perpetuation of Myth, Art Museum of Los Gatos, Los Gatos, CA
2012 The Office, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
The Heart of the Future, Kondos Gallery, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA
Redux, University of Mary Washington Galleries, Fredericksburg, VA
2011 Busywork, Kondos Gallery, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA
H2O, Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
Chain Letter, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA
2010 Manufractured Forward, Oliver Art Center, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA
Out of Order, Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
Flatlanders III, Nelson Gallery, Davis, CA
Summer in the City, JayJay, Sacramento, CA
Groundswell, Kala, Oakland, CA
2009 Sweetness, Moorpark College Gallery, Moorpark, CA
Auction 100, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
2008 Manufractured, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR
East of the West, SomArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA
Pink Week Art Show, Tangent Gallery, Sacramento, CA
Manmade, East Gallery, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA
2007 Don’t Fence Me In, Bandini Art, Culver City, CA
Group Show, Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
2006 Spring Installation, Phantom Galleries, San Jose, CA
Materialism, Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
Out of This World, Limn Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2005 All California!, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
Beyond Plastic, Limn Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Open Show, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA
Rustic & Urbane, East Gallery, Claremont University, Claremont, CA
Open Call LA, Barnsdall Municipal Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Northwest Territories, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
2003 Petite Works, Gallery 825, Bergamot Annex, Santa Monica, CA
On Site, Angel’s Gate Gallery, San Pedro, CA
2002 Showstoppers, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach, CA
2001 National Juried Art Competition, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA
2000 New Art Y2K, Kingston Gallery, Boston, MA
1997 Celebrating the World Through Art, The Somerville Museum, Somerville, MA
1996 Places Between, Senior Thesis Show, Olin Gallery, Gambier, OH
EXHIBITIONS
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2021, Google, Mountain View, CA
I was commissioned to create four pieces for Google's headquarters through their Artist in Residence program. Each piece was designed with specific computing theories in mind: Cat State, Quantum Gate, Gradient Ascent, and Hidden Layer. I used resistors on foam core to articulate each of these themes.
resistors on archival foam core, 48"h x 96"w
Describe your image
resistors on archival foam core, 48"h x 96"w
COMMISSIONS
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2021, Private Collection, Los Altos, CA
SITE-SPECIFIC INSTALLATIONS
Seeping Through Domestic Dissonance, 2025
NUMU (New Museum Los Gatos), Los Gatos, CA
"Fabian’s haunted cabin of obsolete resistors, capacitors, and diodes, their metal wiring contrasting with their bright color coding, and the slip-cast sprouting fungal growths that have claimed and reanimated them, all serve as a warding-off of evil, an appeasing nod to the fire gods, as well as psychic grounding for traumatized disaster victims."
-DeWitt Cheng
Read the full review
"Rise and Fall", 2025
Washi tape
Koumimachi Kogen Museum, Koumi Town, Japan
I used hundreds of feet of washi tape donated by MT to festoon the walls of the museum.
To and Fro, 2022
ceramic, resistors, repurposed and altered rocker
Rhizome, 2018-22
resistors
Arrival Window, Minnow Arts, Santa Cruz, CA
This show featured kinetic sculptures and a site-specific installation with resistors. See more photos on Minnow Arts' website
Divested, 2014
microfiche
One Site, Thacher Gallery, University of San Francisco
I created this installation with hundreds of rolls of microfiche that the USF library planned to get rid of. I used the unique light fixtures, inverted domes, to highlight the beauty of this material that teeters on the edge of obsolescence.
5,500 Into the Deep, 2012
5,500 feet of industrial tape
One of my largest installations was exhibited at Don Soker Contemporary Art in San Francisco for my solo show Concentric. This industrial tape swelled and oozed in a hauntingly raw space. Ken Baker of the San Francisco Chronicle said this of the exhibit: "A young San Jose artist makes a strong San Francisco debut with works in materials accumulated to the point where they challenge her control. Pleasing, unplanned effects result when she clusters together scores of glass pipettes or stuffs a backlighted plastic box with film."
Heavy is the Sea of Trees, 2012
Plaster, cardboard, plastic netting, vellum
This installation was created during my residency at Centre d'art Marnay in France. The rural environment was home to tree farms, a potato factory, and many, many insects. A previous resident left a bag of plaster behind; that combined with the cardboard and plastic from the potato factory was what gave me the impetus to create this dream-like setting.
Hover, 2009
Plastic film
I created this installation during my residency at Bemis Center for the Arts, in Omaha, NE. The combination of the industrial space and special lighting had a magical, reflective effect on this translucent film.
Ventilate II (detail), 2007
window blinds
This installation was exhibited at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art for my solo show Propogate. Working with this substance is a quintessential example of repurposing, transforming, and activating a humble utilitarian material.
Ventilate II & I, 2007
Room for Recovery, 2005
Tape, mixed media
This was my thesis show for my MFA at Cal State, Northridge. This was my first foray into a full embrace of working with manufactured materials. I chose tape because it became it allowed me to build with immediacy, achieve translucency, and transform an everyday material.
ART FAIRS
2025 Art Market, San Francisco, CA
2023 Art Market, San Francisco. CA
2015 Start Up Art Fair, San Francisco, CA
2015 Start Up Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA
RESIDENCIES
2012 CAMAC (Centre d'Art Marnay), Marny sur Seine, France
Printmaking Residency, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
2009 Bemis Center for the Arts, Omaha, NE
2005 Works, San Jose, CA