Panteha Abareshi

Panteha Abareshi (born 1999)Canadian-born American multidisciplinary artist and curator, primarily working within installation art, video art, and performance art. Quotes I create my work because it’s the only way I can clearly express myself. I speak out about it because I have never been one to be silent. strong, independent disabled women of color who are expressing their own struggles with mental illness and pain through their work. I live with misunderstanding, stigmatization and trivialization of my experiences and suffering constantly, and my art is my way of coping with that. It is also a way to express how I feel in a way that I feel those around me can more easily understand. It’s a severely isolating thing, to suffer and be told that the way you’re feeling isn’t valid, and it’s something that I have and will never be able to take silently. Painfully Yours – The Raw Measure of Teen Artist Panteha Abareshi, April 30 2017 I didn’t see myself as a Real Artist™ for a very long time, finally calling myself that, and being recognized as an artist by other artists I respect was a very big moment for me. I still struggle immensely with self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy, and I definitely sometimes feel like I don’t “deserve” to be called an artist. I feel like when I say “I’m an artist,” I have to follow it with “well… I’m an illustrator, I guess. I mean, I draw. Sort of.” and just sort of spiral into a slew of self-deprecating word-vomit. I only draw WOC because it’s extremely important for me to create the kind of female characters that I missed growing up, and still feel the absence of in contemporary art and media today. Drawing these WOC, who are also the embodiments of my struggles with mental illness, is a big part of me expressing and deepening my identity as a WOC, and coping with my emotions and depression… I’m a very isolated and insular person, so it’s easy for me to just be alone in my bedroom working on my pieces, and not really registering their reception by the outside world. Still though, it doesn’t push me to change what I’m drawing or creating. I’ll never stop making art for myself, because I think I need it the most. INTERVIEW: PANTEHA ABARESHI, August 04 2017 External Links Category:Artists Category:Curators