Real Time and Space is excited to host REAL TALKS with residents Helia Pouyanfar and Shirin Towfiq. Join us Wednesday, November 5th at 6pm. RTS is located at 125 10th St in Oakland, CA. Get here early for pizza!
Helia Pouyanfar is an interdisciplinary artist whose work investigates the permanently transient state of the refugee body and its negotiation and reconciliation with Place. Pouyanfar has received her B.A. in Art Practice from UC Berkeley and her MFA in Studio Art from UC Davis.
She has been the recipient of the Certificate of Excellence in Sculpture from UC Berkeley, Mary Lou Osborn Award, the 2021 Margrit Mondavi Graduate Fellowship from UC Davis, 2024 Berkeley Civic Arts Artist Grant, 2024 Kala Art Institute Fellowship, 2025 Recology Artists in Residence Program, and Makaan Arts Residency at Minnesota Street Foundation. Her work has been exhibited at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Miami University, Foyer-LA, Root Division, Southern Exposure, Berkeley Art Center, Kala Art Gallery, Richmond Art Center, San Francisco Arts Commission Main Gallery, and SF Camerawork.”
Shirin Towfiq, is an Iranian-American artist predominantly working with an emphasis on instwhose work addresses cultural memory, family histories, legacies of trauma, transnational migration, and translation. Towfiq completed her Bachelor of Arts in Art Practice from the University of California Berkeley in 2016 and a Masters of Fine Arts from Stanford University in 2020.
In recent years, Towfiq has presented solo-exhibitions at Spill 180 Gallery, New York, NY; The Mingei Museum, San Diego, CA; 1078 gallery, Chico, CA; City Gallery, San Diego, CA; and has been included in group exhibitions at Four Freedoms Park, New York; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; The De Young Museum; Minnesota Street Project; SOMArts; San Francisco State University Fine Arts Gallery; c3artspace, Melbourne, Australia. She has won various awards, such as the Rydell Award and Harpo Award in 2024.