REZA FARKHONDEH & GHADA AMER

Meeting as students in France, Amer and Farkhondeh’s collaboration began by chance when Farkhondeh started painting on Amer’s incomplete canvases. This gave rise to their unique back-and-forth method of working with each other. In their mixed-media paintings, Amer’s embroidered female figures—confident while provocative—lie against patterned backgrounds of Farkhondeh’s floral motifs. These works suggest a clash of cultures—between East and West, purity and desire, restraint and freedom.

Amer obtained her BFA and MFA in Painting from the Villa Arson, Nice in 1986 and 1989 respectively, while Farkhondeh obtained his BFA in painting at Beaux-Arts de Dijon in 1988 and his MFA in Video and Short Film from the Villa Arson, Nice in 1991. Both Amer and Farkhondeh received their post-diplomas from the Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques, Paris in 1991 and 1993 respectively. Amer’s work is held in major collections such as Birmingham Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museo Jumex, Mexico City; Fonds national d’art contemporain, Paris; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf; Sammlung Goetz, Munich; and Seattle Art Museum. Farkhondeh’s work can be found in numerous collections including Hillyer Art Museum, Smith College, Northampton; Musée départemental de la Tapisserie, Aubusson-Felletin; and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Notable exhibitions include Border Crossings (2025), Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin; Killer Heels (2016), Currier Museum of Art, Manchester; Killer Heels (2015), Palm Springs Art Museum; Killer Heels (2015), Albuquerque Museum; Killer Heels (2015), Brooklyn Museum, New York; Prism-Drawings from 1990-2011 (2012), Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo; and RFGA Drawings and Ghada Amer Paintings (2006), Stedelijk Museum, ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

Amer and Farkhondeh had their residency at the STPI Workshop in 2007, resulting in the exhibition A New Collaboration on Paper (2008).

Courtesy STPI