Statement
Pantea Karimi’s work approaches historical archives as living sources for activating her family histories as an entry point into the collective experience of womanhood. Drawing on her family roots in Shiraz, Iran—a city known for its ancient history, architecture, and gardens—she engages classical Persian paintings and medieval scientific manuscripts in geometry and medicinal botany. She weaves these materials with themes shaped by her transnational life as an immigrant and geopolitical pressures. Her work unfolds as an interplay of harmony and tension, producing syncretic imagery that foregrounds female agency while reflecting her cultural heritage. These investigations take form across digital and analog prints, paintings, animations, objects, and installations.
Biography
Pantea Karimi is a multidisciplinary artist who has been based in San Jose, California, since 2005 and previously resided in England (2001-2005) and Iran. Karimi’s mother, a history teacher, sparked her early interest in art and history, while her grandmother, the family herbalist, instilled a lifelong connection to botany. Her father, a mathematician and architect, inspired her fascination with mathematics and geometry. At fourteen, she began formal training in fine arts and classical music alongside science studies in post-revolutionary Iran—a combination that shaped her path and ultimately led her to pursue art instead of science.
Pantea Karimi holds two Master’s Degrees in Graphic Design and Fine Arts from Iran and the U.S., as well as a printmaking degree from the UK. She has been researching medieval scientific and literary manuscripts since 2014 in prominent libraries, including the British Library, the Chester Beatty in Ireland, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of California, San Francisco Library, among others.
Pantea Karimi’s works have been exhibited in solo, group, and traveling exhibitions in Iran, Algeria, Germany, Croatia, Mexico, the UK, and the United States, including San Jose City Hall, San Jose Tech Interactive, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, New Bedford Art Museum in Massachusetts, Montefiore Einstein in NY, Rotch Library at MIT, and The San Diego Museum of Art and McMullen Museum of Art in Boston as part of 2024 PST ART: Art & Science Collide, represented by the Getty.
Karimi’s works are held in both private and public collections, including YouTube HQ, Stanford University, the University of California, San Francisco, the University of California, Davis, and the permanent collections of the Cities of Palo Alto and Berkeley (CA). KQED Arts & Culture published an article on Karimi’s 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom work, followed by a live interview on KQED Forum, aired on April 26, 2023.
Karimi is a 2024 City of San Jose Creative Ambassador, a 2023 Kala Art Institute Honoree, and a 2019 Silicon Valley Artist Laureate. She is the recipient of Pollock-Krasner Foundation Artist Grant (2022), City of San Jose Arts and Cultural Exchange Grant (2019) and Artist Residencies and Fellowships at MASS MoCA (2022 and 2024), Santa Fe Art Institute (2024), Montalvo Art Center’s Lucas Artist Program (2024-2026), University of California San Francisco Library (2021-2022) and Kala Art Institute (2017).
Karimi is an Adjunct Faculty member at Cabrillo College, Aptos, CA, and a member of the international discussion group, Substantial Motion Research Network (SMRN), affiliated with Simon Fraser University in Canada, founded by Dr. Azadeh Emadi and Dr. Laura U. Marks.
Photos by Carolina Porras Monroy, Studios at MASS MoCA, May 2022.