September 1997
The Iranian

It took almost a month and several phone calls for Avideh Zahedi to write a few words about herself. She had already given photographs of her work but no bio to go with them. She kept saying she was worried because it was the first time she was about to show her work to the public.

There's little doubt that her work will generate great interest. One cannot escape the impact of her ceramic statuettes which are frozen explosions of deep and highly emotional feelings. There's even an urge to reach out and console the grief-stricken figures. (See below)

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Here's what Zahedi wrote about herself:

First of all I just want to start out by saying that I am extremely apologetic that this information is long over due.

Name: Avideh Zahedi
School: San Francisco State University/ Bachelor of Fine Arts 1995
Emphasis: Ceramic sculpture

I was born and raised in Iran up until 1979, when at the age of 12 I moved to the States. I was in boarding school in Virginia until 1981. I did not get involved in the arts until I was 23 when I took my first drawing class in southern California.

Eventually I moved to San Francisco where I started working on ceramic sculptures. My work is figurative and expressionist, trying to capture feeling in clay with body gestures and exaggeration of body parts.

I mostly sculpt women. Some of my work can be interpreted as feminist, but that has never been my primary intention.

Click on images or titles below to see full image. Photographs by Julie Pavlowski.

Related links

* THE IRANIAN Arts section
* THE IRANIAN WebGuide Arts page