Maryam Monalisa Gharavi

Maryam Monalisa Gharavi is an artist, poet, and theorist whose work explores the interplay between aesthetic and political valences in the public domain. Exhibitions, performances, and expanded publications include Nottingham Contemporary, Pioneer Works, Parasol Unit, Serpentine Cinema, Framer Framed, Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Art Dubai, New Museum, Pacific Film Archive, Sonic Acts, Triple Canopy, Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, The Poetry Project, Women and Performance, The White Review, Art in America, The Literary Review, Asymptote, among others.

She was previously an artist-in-residence at Recess (U.S.A), Residency Unlimited (U.S.A.), Aftab Committee (U.S.A.), Wysing Arts Centre (U.K), Industry Lab (U.S.A.), Delfina Foundation (U.K.), Darat al Funun (Jordan), and Mansion (Lebanon). She completed a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Film & Visual Studies at Harvard University and an M.F.A. in Film/Video at Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, and held a postdoctoral Fulbright and Visiting Professorship at Birzeit University. She was Lecturer in History & Literature at Harvard University from 2012 to 2017 and has served as a visiting faculty/studio artist at New York University, Valand Academy, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University, and Bard Microcollege.

Book publications include a translation of Waly Salomão’s Algaravias: Echo Chamber (Ugly Duckling Presse), nominated for a PEN Award for Poetry in Translation; The Distancing Effect (BlazeVOX); and Bio (Inventory Press). Artist books/chapbooks include Apparent Horizon 2 (Bonington Gallery); Alphabet of an Unknown City (Belladonna*), Secret Catalan Poem (The Elephants), and Dictionary of Night (co-authored with Mirene Arsanios). She was an editor at The New Inquiry between 2012 and 2017 and is the author of the open text South/South. She is currently a Creative-in-Residence at Brooklyn Public Library.