Negar Assari-Samimi is a conceptual artist that works on many different media including sculpting, drawing, painting, photography, and computer graphics. Some of her artwork has been published internationally to inform communities about global-warming and other environmental hazards.
Negar has held many exhibitions in the United States, as well as Europe. She has also participated in many exhibits such as Washington Art-o-Matic, Iranian Women Studies Exhibition, Emotional Sensibilities, Images of Protest and Peace, Dialogue Through Art: A Pictorial Conversation, and, Florence International Biennial of Contemporary Art.
Her goal is to create artwork that has strong messages toward public awareness and educating communities. She strongly believes that visual communication can play a great role in making our world a better place. There are many ways to reach peaceful solutions. A work of art that can visualize and demonstrate peace to public eyes may create peaceful solutions to on-going conflicts.
"People are People" from "Religion & Tolerance" series
In 1993, she graduated with a BA from the College of Art and Architecture (Tehran/Iran) with a concentration in Educational Visual Communication. Her thesis was on effective use of graphic communication to educate the public about global environmental hazards. In 1997, she received a Masters in Art degree in Visual Information Technology from George Mason University (Fairfax/U.S.A).
Negar explains her "Religion & Tolerance":
Every individual is important. Let's focus on our similarities rather than on our differences.
We fight everyday. We fight for our beliefs. Let's not kill each other for them.
In my art, I try to show the similarities and importance of our individual beliefs. The building block for each scenario is a mother and a child. I purposely used the same mother and child for four different religions to show people's similarities. Although the mother and the child are the same in each scenario, the religious backdrop is different. The artwork illustrates the passing of our beliefs from one generation to the next and the manner in which people choose to raise their children within boundaries. The nude child represents the purity and innocence that will inevitably be suppressed by adult beliefs.
At the end, a circle symbolizes the religious loop in which we must all learn to live peacefully.
People are just people regardless of religion, borders, or boundaries. Let's not raise our children within boundaries.
We need to protect, not punish, people for their beliefs.
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