Bio
Born in Tehran, Farnaz Dadfar is an interdisciplinary artist who now lives on Gadigal Country in Sydney. Her practice spans across media, incorporating sculpture, painting, installation, video, and text exploring the notion of diaspora through the lens of migration. Farnaz has exhibited in galleries and museums across Australia, Germany, Indonesia, and Iran, including QUT Art Museum Brisbane, Linden new Art Melbourne, Spinnerei Leipzig, Sarang Building Yogyakarta, and Saba Cultural Artistic Institute Tehran. She is the recipient of several awards, such as Paulette Isabel Jones Career Development Award, Arthur Macquarie Travelling Scholarship, The Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Scholarship – SCA Travel, Anne Runhardt Art Award Notfair, The David Richards Drawing Award, and the VCA Galloway Lawson Prize. Farnaz is currently a sessional academic and PhD candidate at Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney.
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION
2021-2024 PhD candidate, Doctor of Philosophy (Arts and Social Sciences), Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney
2020 Master of Fine Arts (Visual Art), Victorian College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
2017 Master of Contemporary Art, Victorian College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
2015 Graduate Certificate in Visual Art, Victorian College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
2008 Bachelor of Painting, The University of Science and Culture, Tehran
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
2025 Exploration 25, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
2025 A Fresh Perspective, Gallery Lowe and Lee, Sydney
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 All My Broken Pieces, SCA Project Space, Sydney
2019 Cancelled, the Atrium, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
2018 Infinity through Temporality, Kings Artist_Run, Melbourne
2017 Uranium Cake for Peace, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne
2015 Rebirth, Combined Art Performance based on Forough Farrokhzad poems with Shahrokh Moshkin Ghalam and Shirin Majd, Deakin Edge Federation Square, Melbourne
2009 Symmetry Collection, Saba Cultural Artistic Institute, Tehran
2005 Women, Melal Art Museum, Tehran
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 New Contemporaries, SCA Gallery, Sydney College of the arts, The University of Sydney
2023 Elevators Have Windows Too, Open Studio, Leipzig International Art Program, Leipzig, Germany
2021 finalist, HIDDEN Rookwood Sculptures 2022, curated by Dr Kath Fries, Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney
2022 finalist, North Sydney Art Prize 2022, The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, Sydney
2022 ART, DEATH & DISPOSAL, curated by Professor Elizabeth Hallam, University of Oxford, with the DeathTech Research Team, University of Melbourne. Meat Market, Melbourne
2021 finalist, Void-Atrium, in collaboration with Susannah Langley and Warren Armstrong, Immerse 2021, Art in unexpected places, Knox City Council, Melbourne
2021 Notfair 2021, the former Kardina Church, Windsor, Melbourne
2020 finalist, Australian Muslim Artists, Islamic Museum of Australia, Melbourne
2020 Debut XVI, curated by Lucie McIntosh and Jake Treacy, Blindside, Melbourne
2019 VCA ART Grad-Show, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
2019 Drawing the Line, curated by Dr. Kate Just, Creative Spaces, Assembly Point, Melbourne
2019 finalist, Australian Muslim Artists, Islamic Museum of Australia, Melbourne
2019 Praxis 5, SaRanG Building 1, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2019 finalist, Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship, curated by Dr David Sequira, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, The University of Melbourne
2019 finalist, Linden Art Prize, curated by Juliette Hanson, Linden New Art, Melbourne
2018 BigCi - Bilpin International Ground for Creative Initiatives, NSW
2018 Utopian Tongues, curated by Jake Treacy, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne
2018 Exploration18, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
2018 Made in Australia, curated by Dr. Emanuel Rodriguez-Chaves, VCA ArtSpace, The University of Melbourne
2017 Art Masters Exhibition, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
2017 finalist, the churchie National Emerging Art Prize, curated by Kevin Wilson, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane
2017 Saturation Point, VCA ArtSpace, The University of Melbourne
2017 Proud17, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
2017 Feminist Colour-IN, curated by Dr. Kim Donaldson, Experimental Art Space, George Paton Gallery, The University of Melbourne
2017 The Transcience, VCA ArtSpace, The University of Melbourne
2016 GSA Art Prize 2016, Gryphon Gallery, Graduate Student Association, The University of Melbourne
2016 Proud16, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
2016 What Can We All Agree On, curated by Dr. Kate Just and Irene Hanenbergh, VCA ArtSpace, Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne
2015 GCVA Group Show, VCA ArtSpace, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
2015 Rebirth, Combined Art Performance based on Forough Farrokhzad poems with the choreography of Vanessa Mafé-Keane and Shirin Majd, BEMAC, Queensland Multicultural Centre, Brisbane
2015 Belle Arti Prize, Chapman & Bailey Gallery, Melbourne
2014 Small Works Prize Show, Fawn Gallery, Melbourne
2014 Small Works Art Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
2014 Maritime Exhibition, The Victorian Artist Society, Melbourne
2012 Brisbane Faces, Clayfield College, Brisbane
2011 Siev-x. and Some Were Saved, collaboration with Forough Yavari, The Studio of State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
2009 Visual Art Association of Islamic Revolution and Sacred Defense, Palestine Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tehran
2007 Arts of Resistance, Saba Cultural Artistic Institute, Tehran
2006 finalist, New Generation, 30 Contemporary Iranian Artists, Homa Gallery, Tehran
2004 Art Students Exhibition, Bahman Cultural Centre, Tehran
COMMISIONS, AWARDS, GRANTS AND RESIDENCIES
2024 Paulette Isabel Jones Career Development Award, The University of Sydney
2024 Research trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Met’s Libraries, Research Centers and Archives, New York City, supported by The University of Sydney
2023 Arthur Macquarie Travelling Scholarship, The University of Sydney
2022 Arthur Macquarie Travelling Scholarship, The University of Sydney
2022-23 Leipzig International Art Program, LIA art residency, Leipzig, Germany
2022 The Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Scholarship – SCA Travel, The University of Sydney
2021 Best Overall Exhibition award, joint winners with Susannah Langley and Warren Armstrong, Immerse Knox, Melbourne
2021 Anne Runhardt Art Award, notfair 2021, Melbourne
2021 Research Training Program (RTP) Stipend Scholarship, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney
2021 Art, Death and Disposal: “Disposal of the dead: beyond burial and cremation”, supported by Australian Research Council grants DP18010314 and LP180100757
2019 The David Richards Drawing Award, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
2019 reisdency at SaRanG Building 1, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2019 VCA Access mentorship, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
2018 residency at BigCi - Bilpin International Ground for Creative Initiatives, NSW, Australia
2017 Galloway Lawson Prize, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
2017 shortlisted candidate for the Athenaeum Club Visual Arts Research Award, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
2017 Proud17, awarded by ACCA - Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, The University of Melbourne
2016 shortlisted candidate across institutions throughout Australia Start Your Studio Art & Design Scholarship, courtesy of Windsor & Newton, Liquitex and Conte a Paris
2010 Resistance Symmetry Collection, commissioned by Palestine Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tehran, Iran
2009 War Symmetry Collection, commissioned by Iranian Academy of Arts, Farhangestan-e-Honar, Tehran, Iran
PUBLICATIONS
2024 New Contemporaries, exhibition catalogue, Sydney College of the arts, The University of Sydney https://new-contemporaries-sca.sydney.edu.au/2024/students/farnaz-dadfar
Dadfar, F. ‘Blood Real Estate,’ Coolabah, Nr 35, 2023, ISSN 1988-5946. Online journal of the Observatory: Australian and Transitional Studies Centre (OCEAT), University of Barcelona https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/coolabah/article/view/46169/41555
2022 LIA 2022 Leipzig International Art Program, Report. exhibition catalogue, Leipzig, Germany
2022 HIDDEN Rookwood Sculptures 2022, exhibition catalogue, Sydney
2021 notfair 2021, exhibition catalogue, Melbourne
Dadfar, F. Infinite Spaces of the Beloved, 2019. Master Research Thesis, Victorian College of the Arts, open access: https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/236017
2019 VCA ART Grad-Show, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
2019 Praxis 5, exhibition catalogue, SaRanG Building, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2019 Linden Art Prize 2019, exhibition catalogue, Linden New Art, Melbourne
2018 Utopian Tongues, Exhibition Catalogue by Jake Treacy, Seventh Gallery Melbourne
2017 Marking Time: 2017 Graduate Catalogue, School of Art, Faculty of the VCA & MCM, The University of Melbourne
2017 30 years 30 artists, the churchie National Emerging Art Prize, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane
2015 Precinct 015, VCA School of Art Graduates 2015, School of Art, Faculty of the VCA & MCM, The University of Melbourne
2009 Memory Line, A Selection of Artworks of Contemporary Iranian Artists, Saghi publication, Tehran
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2021 Jamali, Peyman, Interview about Void-Atrium app, SBS Persian Radio, Sydney
https://www.sbs.com.au/language/persian/audio/immerse-2021-art-in-unexpected-places
2019 Dalgarno, Paul, VCA Art GradShow, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WBbvI1bibk
2019 Mistry, Anisha, From Tehran to Melbourne, Cultural Pulse, Sydney
2015 Samami, Reza, In Conversation with the Artist, Radio Neshat, Melbourne
https://soundcloud.com/radioneshat/uav11qdlwvu6
2013 Kheiri, Homayoun, Women’s Immigrant, Limitations and Achievements, Iranwire, Brisbane
2006 Rohani, Omid, New Generation Exhibition, Homa Gallery, Etemad Newspaper, Tehran, p. 32.
2006 Sharifian, Vahid, A Glance at the New Generation, Tandis Magazine, Tehran, p. 10.
2005 Kefayati, Elahe, Nobody pays attention to young artist, Hamshahri Newspaper. Tehran, p. 6.