As Avisheh dried years of creation and collection she grappled with her relationship with concepts of memory, photography, and documentation. Resurface is inspired by Susan Sontag’s quote “You cannot preserve the present, you can only preserve the past,” and the Japanese practice of Wabi-Sabi, the acceptance of change and impermanence. Resurface is about hope and finding the silver lining in times of duress.
Avisheh Mohsenin was born in France and moved to Iran as a child where she grew up and attended university before moving to the U.S. in 1997. In the U.S. she obtained a Masters in Economics and started her multi-disciplinary art career by attending continuing education classes and experimenting with various mediums. Her work has incorporated photographic compositions, sculptural mixed media, light-boxes, and works on paper.
She has had solo shows at Heidi Vaughan Fine Art in Houston (2018), Golestan Gallery in Tehran-Iran, Lonestar College-Houston, Live Oak Art Center, Columbus, Texas and is part of the bibliography at the Houston Flood Museum. Her group exhibitions include: FotoFest (Seeing Harvey, Houston, 2018), Houston Center for Photography (2019), the MIIT Museum in Turin, Italy in 2016. She has participated in other group shows and art collectives in Chicago including, Aldo Castillo Contemporary Gallery, Chicago Art Department, Creative Lounge Chicago, Fulton Street Collective, LIPA Gallery, and Margin Gallery Art Collective.
She is a board member of the Houston Arts Foundation (HAF), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Houston’s more than 400 city-owned artworks. She is also the co-founder and board member of Pasfarda Arts & Cultural Exchange, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Chicago engaged in promoting peace through the arts.
A 15 minute documentary made by CGTN in 2018, titled “Beauty in Ruins”, is below.
