MITRA FABIAN
BIOGRAPHY
Mitra Fabian is a San Jose-based sculptor and installation artist who focuses on materiality and concepts of human industry, traditionally exploitative female labor, and the natural world. She was born in Iran, raised in Boston, and then studied Art and Anthropology at Kenyon College before moving to California where she earned her MFA at 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, had a solo show at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art in 2007, and was commissioned by Google for several artworks in 2021. She has also shown with galleries and museums in California and Oregon, and is represented by the Billis Williams Gallery in Los Angeles. She has been an artist-in-residence at Bemis in Omaha, NE, the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, and Centre d’Art Marnay, in France. Her work has been reviewed by several media organizations including Spark, KQED Television, Square Cylinder, Create Magazine, Angeleno Magazine, and Artweek. She is a professor at West Valley College teaching sculpture and ceramics.
STATEMENT
My artwork reflects the complicated intersection of local human industry, traditionally exploitative female labor, and the natural world. I work primarily with discarded manufactured materials- the remnants and by-products of human activity. Parts of my process can simulate sewing, assembly line work, or other tasks historically done by women under duress. The act of salvaging these materials is one of care, reanimating them in a way that reveals surprisingly organic and sublime qualities. My work calls on us to reconsider our relationship with these materials and recognize not just the legacy of mechanical production but also the intimate stories of the human condition and our relationship to the natural world.
My current work consists of abstract ceramic sculptures textured with resistors, capacitors, and diodes, the candy-colored components one finds on circuit boards. I am captivated by these materials that were ubiquitous in Silicon Valley but now have limitations in an industry that seeks to get smaller and faster. In using these components I am commenting upon the slowness of my process in opposition to the immediacy and “progress” the resistors were thought to provide. Because these elements end up as e-waste, I also seek to illustrate a certain level of waste and intentional obsolescence that they can signify.