“Empowering Voices: The Mural Art of Farnaz”
Farnaz Zabetian is a contemporary painter known for creating unique and dreamlike portraits of women from her generation. Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1976, she began painting and experimenting with visual art long before graduating with a major in painting from the University of Art in Tehran. In addition to pursuing her passion for painting professionally, Farnaz has also taught art at various universities in Tehran and nearby cities.
Her work is heavily influenced by poetry and the everyday lives of real women, seeking to create a shared space between poetry and form in her paintings. Her work involves conversations between the realities of our lives and the poetry’s criticism of them, brought to a conclusion alleviated by paint. Her earlier career was abstract, while later pieces feature fish and women with elongated necks, representing the long and challenging journey these women must take before they can arrive at self-expression.
Zabetian left Iran for Paris, France, in 2012 and later moved to San Francisco, where she continues to live and work. Her work has been featured in various Iranian media, and has done several large murals in well-known cities such as San Francisco and New York. She is an associate member of the Society of California Art Club and the Society of Iran’s Painters. In 2017, her work was featured at the San Francisco Art Fair, and she had a solo exhibition at the Peninsula Museum of Art in Burlingame, CA. Her art is on the famous Market Street in the San Francisco Bay Area.
During the “Women, Life, Freedom” revolution, she was active in the artistic community and painted many murals.