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Symmetry Magazine; http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/?pid=1000499
Brookhaven National Laboratory, http://www.bnl.gov/60th/houshmand.asp
US Mission to NATO; http://nato.usmission.gov/dossier/Women.asp
Brookhaven National Laboratory, http://www.bnl.gov/60th/houshmand.asp
US Mission to NATO; http://nato.usmission.gov/dossier/Women.asp
"Roshan Houshmand's paintings are melodic fusions of the eastern and western traditions.
And here lies the vigor of her art; to make the east a metaphor of the west and vice versa.
Eastern textile designs, subtlest of mutations, are transformed dramatically to assume familiar
shapes. Familiar only because the images speak with the appropriate elan for the western
context of experience. The mood evoked is a perfect and harmonious mixture of the
inexplicable mystery of Persian gardens and the transcendent spirituality of the western
abstraction. All attained in the most original of schemes and with eclecticism sedulously
proscribed. Never before have these dichotomous spirits been so contiguous and their
boundaries so inseparably fused."
Abbas Daneshvari
California State University
And here lies the vigor of her art; to make the east a metaphor of the west and vice versa.
Eastern textile designs, subtlest of mutations, are transformed dramatically to assume familiar
shapes. Familiar only because the images speak with the appropriate elan for the western
context of experience. The mood evoked is a perfect and harmonious mixture of the
inexplicable mystery of Persian gardens and the transcendent spirituality of the western
abstraction. All attained in the most original of schemes and with eclecticism sedulously
proscribed. Never before have these dichotomous spirits been so contiguous and their
boundaries so inseparably fused."
Abbas Daneshvari
California State University
Roshan Houshmand’s abstract
muted oils …resonate with painterly
nuances of opaline delicacy. Strewn
with a welter of iconic shapes and
forms, and rendered in chromatic
tones of faded glory, these convey a
sense of portentous ruins, like
reliquary frescoes from the ancient
Mystery Religious. Houshmand’s
cosmology is subtly female, softly
evocative and almost hermetically
abstract.
Indeed, in this transcendent series
of abstract paintings, Houshmand
seems a kind of recording angel of
lost and faded mysteries.
Eric Bookhardt
Gambit, New Orleans
muted oils …resonate with painterly
nuances of opaline delicacy. Strewn
with a welter of iconic shapes and
forms, and rendered in chromatic
tones of faded glory, these convey a
sense of portentous ruins, like
reliquary frescoes from the ancient
Mystery Religious. Houshmand’s
cosmology is subtly female, softly
evocative and almost hermetically
abstract.
Indeed, in this transcendent series
of abstract paintings, Houshmand
seems a kind of recording angel of
lost and faded mysteries.
Eric Bookhardt
Gambit, New Orleans
Roshan Houshmand was born and raised in the Philippines and later moved to Iran, with a
Dutch-American mother and an Iranian father. Her roots and are steeped in ancient, exotic
patterns and textures, however her education in the arts is western, with a BA from
Bennington College in Vermont, an MA in Art History and an MFA in Painting from Rosary
Graduate School of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. She has lived in the US, Iran, Spain, Italy, the
Philippines, and Cyprus, with extensive time spent traveling the world.
Roshan paints melodic fusions of the eastern and western traditions, making one a metaphor
of the other and vice versa. Her work evokes the mystery of the Persian Garden and the
transcendent spirituality of the western abstraction.
Her work has been exhibited in Europe and the US, including New York, Los Angeles, Santa
Fe, Barcelona, Brussels and Copenhagen. She is a 2005 and 2010 recipient of the NY
State Council on the Arts Decentralization Grant, a 2010 and 2011 recipient of the A.
Lindsay and Olive B. O'Connor Foundation Grant (NY), a 2010 recipient of the NY State
Foundation for the Arts SOS Grant and a 2006 grant recipient from the US Department of
State Art in Embassies Program for the exhibition “21st Century American Women Artists” at
the US Mission to NATO in Brussels, Belgium where her work was featured with that of Kiki
Smith, Raine Bedsole, Marita Dingus, Karen Barth, Karen LaMonte, Annette Lemieux, Emily
Richardson and Lisa Vershbow. In 2007 Houshmand’s physics-inspired paintings were
featured on the Brookhaven National Laboratory’s website in commemoration of their sixtieth
anniversary and in SYMMETRY, the joint Fermilab/SLAC publication. These works are also
featured in the April 2008 edition of COSMOS magazine. Houshmand’s work is in the fall
2008 and spring 2009 issues of STUDIO VISIT MAGAZINE, published by The Open Studio
Press. This year Ms. Houshmand received Special Merit Recognition for the Representation
of Scientific/Mathematical Principle/Phenomena at “The Next Big Idea Festival” in Los
Alamos, NM. Other major exhibitions include “Totem” at the Boca Raton Museum of Art” in
Florida, “Evolving Perceptions” at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and Metras
Gallery in Barcelona, Spain.
Ms. Houshmand has taught art at Penn State University, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, The
Community College of Allegheny County (PA), and Escola Massana in Barcelona, Spain.
She currently is an instructor of painting and art appreciation at the State University of New
York at Delhi, NY. Her studio is in Andes, NY where she has lived since 2003.
All material on this site is
Copyrighted by Roshan Houshmand.
Member of the Artists Rights Society.
Copyrighted by Roshan Houshmand.
Member of the Artists Rights Society.
“…Roshan Houshmand’s paintings clearly indicate her interest in (these) eternal issues. It is
the world of the mind and spirit rather than of the physical and material. The paintings are
freely created with a field full of paint and symbols. The surface is more of a tablet for
notation and evocation than for any concern with perspective or didactics. The free paint
application creates a misty, dreamlike environment that allows movement and a certain
vagueness.
One is tempted to interpret this perception as a magical surface that contains the
embodiment of ritual, dream and mystery. They are so represented that the concept of
voodoo readily comes to mind. From an art historical perspective, early Rothko, and
particularly Gottlieb, paintings present a painted surface and symbols which are more
structured and controlled. One is tempted to read their work like hieroglyphics, whereas here
one takes Roshan’s work as a totality of parts which exist within the context or the work rather
than on their own.”
Roger L. Selby
Boca Raton Museum of Art
the world of the mind and spirit rather than of the physical and material. The paintings are
freely created with a field full of paint and symbols. The surface is more of a tablet for
notation and evocation than for any concern with perspective or didactics. The free paint
application creates a misty, dreamlike environment that allows movement and a certain
vagueness.
One is tempted to interpret this perception as a magical surface that contains the
embodiment of ritual, dream and mystery. They are so represented that the concept of
voodoo readily comes to mind. From an art historical perspective, early Rothko, and
particularly Gottlieb, paintings present a painted surface and symbols which are more
structured and controlled. One is tempted to read their work like hieroglyphics, whereas here
one takes Roshan’s work as a totality of parts which exist within the context or the work rather
than on their own.”
Roger L. Selby
Boca Raton Museum of Art
Photo by Jackie Parslow