press release september 2010
(< Return to Press Releases)CSMA's Mohr Gallery Presents Mixed Media Prints by Pantea Karimi
The Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) at Finn Center in Mountain View presents Mediated Senses, Mixed Media Prints, by Pantea Karimi. The exhibition will be in CSMA’s Mohr Gallery from October 8-November 21, 2010, with an opening reception and artist talk on Friday, October 8, 6-8 pm. Many of the works are new and are on exhibit for the first time.
Pantea Karimi holds degrees in printmaking, book art, illustration, graphic design, glass and painting from institutions in the U.S. (San Jose State University), United Kingdom (Hastings College of Arts and Technology), and her native Iran (Al-Zahra University). As a faculty member at the Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA), she has taught a variety of classes to children. Karimi's professional experience also includes teaching children and adults privately, both in the U.S. and abroad, and serving as a program specialist at the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose. Her work has been displayed in public and private venues in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, London, and other cities.
"Mediated Senses probes our dynamic relationship with and sensory responses to our continually evolving physical and virtual environments," says Pantea Karimi. "Since these phenomena are constantly mediated and manipulated by our increasing immersion in cyber-culture and digital technology, our perceptions and sensory responses to these surroundings are in flux and automatically mediated as well."
Karimi takes photographs of sites, buildings, and people that she visits. In the series on display in Mohr Galley, she has appropriated and manipulated her own images to create a new locale, to suggest a new relationship, to articulate the thought of a mediated sense, a mediated reaction and perception of our continually shifting surroundings.
"In various media, ranging from drawing and watercolor to silkscreen and monoprint, my protagonists float in volatile environments with a sense of wonder, curiosity and bewilderment," says the artist.
The Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) at Finn Center is committed to providing Arts for All, regardless of age, level, background or economic means. The non-profit, founded in 1968, reaches 40,000+ people annually providing classes, lessons, camps, in-school programs (Arts in Action, Music in Action), concerts, exhibitions, lectures and free community events. In Jan 2004, CSMA opened Finn Center, Silicon Valley’s first-ever center for music and arts education and the school’s first permanent home since its founding in 1968. CSMA is among the top 10 schools of its kind in the US.
CSMA’s Mohr Gallery is located at Finn Center, 230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View, and is open Mon-Fri, 9 am-7 pm and Sat, 9 am-3 pm. The Friday, October 8 exhibition opening reception and artist talk with Pantea Karimi (6-8 pm) is free and open to the public. Info: see www.arts4all.org or call 650-917-6800, ext. 306.