Hoda Kashiha

Hoda Kashiha (b. 1986, Tehran, Iran) is a graduate of Painting from the University of Tehran (BA, 2009) and Boston University (MFA, 2014). She received the Esther B. and Albert S. Kahn Award; the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center Rare Book Prize; the Iranian Association of Boston Scholarship; and the Boston University Women’s Council Scholarship. She was a fellow at MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant at Vermont Studio Center. Works of Hoda Kashiha bounce between everyday life and the imagery she sets out to produce. The artist meets with difficult moments in her personal and political life through non-linear narrative, dark humor, and mythological, religious, and modern icons. Drawing references ranging "from Malevich to Instagram," she composes her fragmented narratives. Kashiha uses digital tools to draw an artwork and then construct it on canvas, layer upon layer. Nevertheless, this way of fragmenting motifs deals with major contemporary subjects found everywhere, such as gender issues. The body plays a vital role in many of the artist’s works. Through the body, she relates to the world, becomes aware of her desires, and constructs an identity. Drawing the body projects her personal life and the external world. Interestingly in man and woman interaction, she uses various tools (airbrush, i-Pad, stencil) and subjects (body fragments, geometric abstraction) that affect an ambiguity that separates traditional definitions of male-female, resulting in gender fluidity.