Jasmine Valandani

Studio U5A

Medium: Interdisciplinary

Jasmine Valandani is an artist, wanderer, and gleaner. Meandering, exploring place through senses, picking stuff up off the ground: this has been an occupation since childhood. A third generation Californian of Iranian and Finnish heritage, she has wandered to the Northwests of the United States and Africa, from a rural island in Washington State to the desert oases of Morocco, collecting pine pollen, shell fragments, rusty cans and colorful earth pigment to befriend through material exploration. A practice of receptivity, of openness to the indeterminate and ephemeral, is a thread running through decades of her art-making.

Her formal education includes studies in printmaking and horticulture, with a BFA from the University of San Francisco; literature and language studies at the University of Nantes and Institute of European Studies in Nantes, France; and a fiber and material studies MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Diverse projects —drawing, sculpture, installations, weaving, zines— have been exhibited in the U.S., Canada, South Korea and Europe. Awards include residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and PLAYA Summer Lake, and a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission. Having returned to the San Francisco Bay Area, now living on Muwekma Ohlone land, she continues to find inspiration in relation with the elements and other living things. Her seeking (re-searching) centers on the confluence of inner and outer landscapes, with an eye toward the subtlest margins of experience and matter, where the ordinary meets the sublime.

Artist Website