ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mona Shomali is an Iranian American artist based out of Oakland, California. She was born in Los Angeles in 1979, the same year her parents immigrated to the US during the Iranian Revolution. She began painting seriously at 15 years old after being introduced to nude life drawing classes sponsored by the Berkeley Artists Guild. She has always painted nudes, although the themes have changed over the collections. The first collection was about Iranian female liberation, the second collection was about ecosystem harm on the body and the third collection is about interracial intimacy.
PATTERNS OF INTIMACY
The third collection is about the representation of bodies of color in intimacy. An interracial exploration of dominance and submission, of aggression and passivity, the sexualization of oppression and subordination. A view of bodies of color during intimate acts and what that means to different people. A reflection on the hyper sexualization of different bodies.
The collection is for viewers to interpret subtle body language, dynamics of power. Asking the question, what is pleasure and what are the roles we play? Interracial intimacy is ripe with layers and stories from within our cultures and it is something that sparks a conversation.
This painting collection was also influenced by the words of Dr. Cornell West who discusses the mythology of interracial sex in his book, Race Matters. West says that “Everyone knows it is virtually impossible to talk candidly about race without talking about sex.” (West, pg 83).
Shomali did not find representation of interracial intimacy in different figurative art movements, and wanted to paint what she experienced in her community. This collection took place in Oakland, California.
INVISIBLE STAINS:::ECOLOGY
Her second collection (Invisible Stains:::Ecology) reflects her view on ecological themes such as: ecosystem interconnectedness, environmental pollution, resource misuse and exploitation, inequity and lack of access, social justice, governance, human rights and sustainability of the human dynamic within larger ecosystem components. This collection is also informed by her professional work experiences as an environmental activist and educator, her international exposure to resource-based belief systems, and her compassion for various cultural modalities of environmental management. Mona Shomali’s focus is on ecology as it is defined by ecological relationships, communities and how ecosystem components adapt and find equilibrium amongst each other.
This second series of oil paintings explores environmental issues that are not only limited to the physical realm. For example, resource management decisions are also informed by cultural and personal dynamics such as: identity, power, fear and ego. Shomali believes that when people are engaged in discovery and exposed to basic ecological concepts, they are more mindful, conscious and purposeful in their interactions with ecosystems and human communities. This painting series took place in New York City.
NAKED FOLKLORE
Her first oil painting collection (Naked Folklore) was a narrative exploration of the Iranian-American female experience. Naked Folklore was a vehicle to provide an alternative depiction of Iranian women who are often seen in western media in black shrouds, shapeless, sexless, as if having no desire, voice or volition of their own. The women in these paintings are surreal, symbolically nude, transforming taboos and defining themselves within the assumptions and tensions of culture. This series served as a rumination of opposing dichotomies within Iranian American identity, such as: freedom and shame, tradition and modernity, public and private, vulnerability and pride, ownership and selfless, oppression and liberation. This painting series took place in San Francisco and New York City.