Skip to Content

Parisa Ghaderi announced as 2023 Envision winner

June 29, 2023
Parisa Ghaderi stands next to a wall with an artist statement text.
Parisa Ghaderi with her exhibition, For dancing in the streets, on view at the Stamps Gallery.

Parisa Ghaderi (MFA ​’14) is the recipient of the 2023 Envision: Michigan Artist Initiative Award. 

The winner received a $5,000 cash prize at the Stamps Gallery during the Award Ceremony on June 29, 2023. 

Ghaderi was selected by a distinguished national panel of jurors: Neil A. Barclay, President & CEO of Charles Wright Museum of African American Art, Shannon Rae Stratton, Executive Director of Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, and Nayda Collazo-Llorens, award-winning artist and winner of the inaugural Envision: Michigan Artist Initiative Award (2020−2021).

In a statement about Ghaderi’s work, the jury said: ​“We are pleased to announce Parisa Ghaderi as the winner of the 2023 Envision: The Michigan Artist Initiative Award. In her work For dancing in the streets, Ghaderi collaged hundreds of media images and found footage from the recent Woman. Life. Freedom protests in Iran to create an immersive installation that is at once tender and transformative as she pays homage to the resilience and spirit of the 549 brave souls who lost their lives between September 2022 and January 2023. Ghaderi skillfully weaves her interests in feminist struggles, archives and diasporic aesthetics that reference the rich legacies of history paintings and documentary photography, resulting in a multidisciplinary work that is a testament that art is a powerful ally of social movements building solidarity and envisioning a world that is based on justice, empathy and mutual respect.” 

Ghaderi is a visual artist, curator, educator, and filmmaker. She earned her BA in Visual Communications from Art & Architecture University (Tehran, Iran) and her MFA at Stamps School in 2014. She works across different media. She has made four short films and two animations and recently directed a performance about the border situation in the U.S. for Iranian immigrants. 

Parisa Ghaderi, For dancing in the streets, 2023.
Parisa Ghaderi, For dancing in the streets, 2023. Video installation. Image courtesy the artist.

In her exhibit, For dancing in the streets, Ghaderi explores the female body and how it has long been a contested site of struggle around the world, specifically among Iranian women. She created a visual collage that combines found images of recent protests with footage of dancers who have either been killed or continue to resist to show how dance embodies shared suffering and fosters a dialogue of resistance and solidarity.

The award ceremony follows the exhibition at the Stamps Gallery, which will continue until July 29, 2023. 

This is the second iteration of Envi­sion: The Michi­gan Artist Ini­tia­tive, an exhibition and awards pro­gram designed to sup­port the devel­op­ment of con­tem­po­rary artists liv­ing and work­ing in Michigan. Featured finalists Bakpak Durden, Parisa Ghaderi, and Levon Kafafian received financial, logistical, and curatorial support from the professional staff at Stamps Gallery. 

Learn more about Parisa Ghaderi’s award-winning exhibition below: 

Related Events