Iranian Artist Maedeh Tafvizi’s Groundbreaking Floor Installation Opens at Bristol Art Museum, Showcasing Women’s Voices in Contemporary Art

The Bristol Art Museum proudly presents In Her Own Image, a powerful new exhibition that invited women artists to challenge and reclaim how they are seen and represented. On view through August 30, the exhibition brings together works that explore identity, resistance, and liberation. This is a group of 14 artists working across media—from painting and photography to installation and digital works—each exploring themes of identity, self-perception, and autonomy through a female lens.

Among the contributions is an extraordinary floor installation by Iranian-born artist Maedeh Tafvizi, whose work bridges digital fabrication with results that are reminiscent of ancient forms of craft. Tafvizi’s piece Grief Resonance—a sprawling, 3D-printed clay “rug”— alluding to the visual language of traditional Persian textiles while invoking themes of displacement, cultural memory, and embodied presence. Viewers are invited to walk around the piece, encountering it not just as an object, but as an act of translation between personal history and public space.

The Museum’s board of directors and staff recognize the importance of supporting living artists like Tafvizi, whose voice and vision contribute to the diversity and urgency of contemporary art. Her presence in the United States—and in our cultural institutions—enriches public dialogue and artistic innovation at a moment when both are urgently needed.

Tafvizi, who earned her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design, spoke movingly at the exhibition’s opening reception about how to “belong” and about claiming space as a woman and an artist. Her creative approach—using cutting-edge technology to enliven traditional motifs—offers a timely and poetic response to questions of belonging, migration, and identity.
Serving as a compelling counterpoint is the work of Ruth Dealy, an established Rhode Island artist known for her raw, introspective self-portraits. Created over decades while navigating vision loss, Dealy’s paintings reveal a deep commitment to presence, vulnerability, and truth. Her work challenges idealized representations of women by confronting the viewer with unflinching honesty—each painting embedded with an intimate act of endurance, perception, and power. Where Tafvizi speaks to cultural exile and reconstruction, Dealy embodies the slow and fearless act of self-witnessing. Together, their works expand the exhibition’s invitation to see and be seen—on one’s own terms.

In Her Own Image features 14 artists working across media, from painting and photography to installation and digital works. Curated to amplify narratives often hidden or erased, the show fosters a space for visibility, solidarity, and creative agency. Participating artists include Anis Beigzadeh, Ruth Dealy, Cricket Fisher, Susan Freda, Leigh Craven, Soraya Lutes, Mercedes Nuñez, Allison Newsome, Magaly Ponce, Esther Solondz, Meredith Stern, Maedeh Tafvizi, Tina Tryforos, Shari Weschler.

The exhibition is on view through August 30. For more information, including a transcript of Maedeh Tafvizi’s opening remarks, click here.