ABOUT THE ARTIST
Shilla Shakoori, (b. Tehran, Iran) is a contemporary Iranian American artist based in Los Angeles. She uses both abstraction and figuration to discover and re-discover the truths in what she experiences daily. Her gestural marks become objective correlatives of thoughts and emotions. Shakoori finds strength and inspiration in music and poetry of artists engaged in the same truth-seeking journey. Among the artists she looks to are: Rumi, Chopin, Forough Farrokhzad, Mahalia Jackson, James Baldwin and Mahmoud Darwish whose influence on Shakoori are dominant.
CV
EDUCATION
- Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design 2009-2012
California State University Northridge (CSUN)
- Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design 1999-2004
Azad University of Art & Architecture - Tehran, Iran
EXHIBITIONS
- Art with a Message, OCCCA (Orange County Center for Contemporary Art), Orange County, CA, July 6-August 24, 2024
- Bloom, A Los Angeles Exhibition Honoring the Power of Flowers, Shoebox Projects space, Los Angeles, CA, February 2024
- Whereabouts, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA, February, 2024
- SPECIMEN, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA, July, 2023
- Indistinct Chatter, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA, February 26 - April 1, 2022
- The Same Thing Everyday, Moorpark College Art Gallery, Moorpark, CA, January-February 2020
- LAAA Open Show, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA, December2019-January 2020
- AMERICAN, GWC Art Gallery, Huntington Beach, CA, March-April 2019
- ART BRIEF IV: Iranian Contemporary San Francisco, SOMARTS Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA, December 2018
- ART BRIEF III: THE (UN)DRAPED WOMAN, Arena1 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, February 2017
- LAAA 2016 Open Show, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA, December 2016
- ART BRIEF ll: IRANIAN CONTEMPORARY NORTH AMERICA, Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, December 2015
- ART BRIEF: IRANIAN CONTEMPORARY LOS ANGELES, Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, June 2016
-LOCAL/NOT LOCAL,Arab and Iranian Typography in California,
University Art Gallery,Cal State University Dominguez Hills, CA, Oct-Dec 2015
-LOCAL/NOT LOCAL,Arab and Iranian Typography in California,
American Arab Museum (AANM),Detroit Michigan, Dec 2014- Feb 2015
-LOCAL/NOT LOCAL,Arab and Iranian Typography in California,
Levantine Cultural Center, Los Angeles, June 2014
- Los Angeles Art Association Anual Benefit Auction, 2013
- The illustration exhibition of Wonderland group, Summer Gallery, Artists Forum,Tehran, Iran, May 2013
- BOOM (Southern California MFA Invitational Group Exhibition), PDC, 2012
-Annual juried art student exhibition, Main Gallery, CSUN, 2012 (won thesecond place)
- In Search O fClarity: Three Perspectives On Iran, (group exhibition) Art Gallery, Antelope Valley College, 2012
- Triangulation (group exhibition) West Gallery, CSUN, 2011
- BOOM (Southern California MFA Invitational Group Exhibition), LA Mart, 2011
- Viable Voices, Shed Gallery, CSUN, 2010
- As Long As It Takes, with Sara Alavikia, Shed Gallery, CSUN, 2009
- Representation of Persian painting in Contemporary Art of Iran (group exhibition), Mahe Mehr Gallery, Tehran-Iran, 2007
- International Visual Arts Festival of Resistance (Illustration), Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran, 2006
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
- Teaching Assistant,
Art 140: 2D Design, California State University, Northridge, Spring 2012
- Student Teaching Assistant,
various graphic design courses, California State University, Northridge, Fall 2009-Fall 2011