• Exhibitions
  • Collection
  • Publications
  • News
  • Programmes
  • Archive
  • Videos and texts
  • Exhibitions
  • Collection
  • Publications
  • News
  • Programmes
  • Archive
  • Videos and texts

February 1 to April 26, 2025

Maryam Taghavi: Unfolding Worlds

مریم تقوی: جهانهای عیان‌شونده

Square galleries

(Click here for a Persian version of this page.)

In Unfolding Worlds, Maryam Taghavi exhibits recent paintings, sculptures, and an architectural installation that transforms space and expands language in ways that direct us to consider the unseen.

Taghavi is motivated by what lies beyond the visible. This pursuit is embodied through her exploration of letter forms—particularly in Islamic calligraphy, which conveys reverence and a connection to the spiritual realm. In Unfolding Worlds, artworks radiate from the concept of the noghte. The noghte is the most essential diacritical mark in Arabic and Persian script; it is also used as a unit of measurement in calligraphy and is represented by a diamond-shaped point.

The diamond-shape is a visually rich marker not only for calligraphy but also abstract art. Abstraction relies on non-representational forms to focus on colour, gesture, and simplified shapes to evoke ideas and meaning. Drawing upon Islamic and Western art traditions, Taghavi manipulates light, language, and architectural space in ways that emphasize the simplicity and beauty inherent in deep colours and geometric forms. In displaying a series of paintings and sculptures, Taghavi has enabled each to be presented in a slightly different state, unfolding or revealing more of their internal logic at each encounter, thus encouraging audiences to see the cultural, art historical, and spiritual richness that lies within a given form.

In Maryam Taghavi: Unfolding Worlds, Taghavi invites viewers to expand their sense of perception through refined geometries and abstractions of language that are indebted to histories of art, cultures, and philosophies that shape our world today.

 

Maryam Taghavi is a Tehran-born, Iranian-Canadian artist and educator based in Chicago. She earned her Master of Fine Arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was the recipient of The New Artist Society Scholarship. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Taghavi has exhibited her work widely, including the recent commission A Spell for Passage, permanently installed at O’Hare International Airport Terminal 5, Chicago, and her solo exhibitions Chicago Works: Maryam Taghavi, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and A Leap Has No Return, Blanc Gallery, Chicago, all 2024. Taghavi has had additional solo and group shows at institutions such as LAXART, Queens Museum, Museo Ex Teresa, Chicago Cultural Center, EXPO, Driehaus Museum, Chicago Artists Coalition, The University Club, and Sazmanab Gallery, among others. Taghavi has received numerous awards and grants, including support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the 2022 Artadia Award.

Maryam Taghavi: Unfolding Worlds is curated by Felicia Mings, curator, The Goldfarb Gallery. This exhibition will be accompanied by an opening celebration on Friday, January 31, 2025, from 6 to 9 pm. Parallel programs inspired by this exhibition include the artist in conversation, exhibition tours, and a response to Unfolding Worlds choreographed and performed by dancer Andros Zins-Browne.

 Maryam Taghavi: Unfolding Worlds builds from the exhibition Chicago Works: Maryam Taghavi, Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago (December 20, 2023, to July 14, 2024), organized by Bana Kattan, Pamela Alper Associate Curator, MCA, with Kamala GhaneaBassiri, Visual Arts Intern.

 

Exhibit Installation team: Uroš Jelić (lead), Phu Bui, Corinne Carlson, Jonah Kamphorst, Matthew Koudys, Jordan May, Manny Trinh, and Morgan Ziegler.

See also:

  • All
  • Winter2025
  • Taghavi
A Choreography for Unfolding Worlds

A Choreography for Unfolding Worlds

performance by Andros Zins-Browne
15 Mar 2025

Winter 2025

Winter 2025

letter from the Director/Curator

Charles Campbell: An Ocean to Livity

Charles Campbell: An Ocean to Livity

Rectangle and Triangle galleries
1 Feb – 26 Apr 2025

From Longhouse to Highrise: The Course of Empire

From Longhouse to Highrise: The Course of Empire

Lobby nook and online
1 Feb – 26 Apr 2025

Point of View Lunchtime Talks

Point of View Lunchtime Talks

In-gallery conversations
various Wednesday lunchtimes

From the Visible Vault

From the Visible Vault

Visible Vault Study Centre
Fall 2024 / Winter 2025

Maryam Taghavi

Maryam Taghavi

Community Resource Program
2023

 

GALLERY HOURS
Tuesday to Saturday
Noon to 5 pm
Always free

LOCATION
83A York Blvd, Toronto ON [map]

The nearest subway and Wheel-Trans stop is York University Station on Line 1. Student Services Parking Garage is nearest parking.


 

INFORMATION

Inquiries

Mandate

Funders and supporters

People

 

Land Acknowledgement

York University Website

 

CONTACTING THE GALLERY
416-736-5169
TheGoldfarbGallery@yorku.ca

OFFICE HOURS
Monday to Friday
10 am to 5 pm

MAILING ADDRESS
The Joan and Martin Goldfarb Gallery
Keele Campus, York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto Ontario  M3J 1P3
Canada