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Minoo Emami (1963) is an Iranian multi-disciplinary artist with over 25 years dedicated to art practice, teaching, and exhibition. She moved to the U.S. and began her formal art education at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in January 2015. She earned a BFA from Tufts University in May 2019. Minoo received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in May 2021.

Minoo began as a self-taught artist in Iran. She worked with and learned from accomplished local artists and master craftspeople. As a dedicated life-long learner she conducted individual research and created a library and film archive in her studio in Tehran. She taught other aspiring artists. Just women, because mixed-gender gatherings in Iran are by law, not permitted. Minoo persevered creating a small society where women of war, like herself, could develop their art technically, intellectually, and heal. She remains very proud of her students. Some of them are now professional artists and writers.

Beginning in her teens, activism became an important part of Minoo’s life and continues to be reflected in every part of her art practice. She has maintained an active role in several community-based organizations including Cassiopeia Caravana, Founding Member (Cohort of artists from Canada, China, Iran, Pakistan, and the U.S.), Peace March, Leader and Artist. (Interviews and Art Collaboration with Iraqi and Iranian Women War Survivors), and Artistic and Professional Progress Group, Leader, and Mentor. (Extension of Painting, Drawing, & Mix Media, Private Group Classes for Iranian Women).

The major themes of Minoo’s work include memory, trauma, and the female body in relationship with architecture viewed through the lens of her personal history. She lived through the Iran-Iraq war, the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the Green Movement, and the postrevolution years in Iran under its religious regime and endured the daily tragedies of a country in conflict. Her personal journey has helped Minoo to realize that the social implications of her work are equally important to artistic proficiency. She is committed to lifetime learning, advocating for herself and women like her, and contributing to the next generation’s understanding of humanity and equality.

Minoo has given talks and presentations at universities and institutions in the U.S. and taught at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and RISD CE. She is the winner of the 2022 Alumni Traveling Fellowship at SMFA at Tufts University and the 2019 UNC Alumni Sculpture Garden Grant. Her work has been written about and exhibited in solo and group shows nationally and internationally. Her work has been collected privately and within the permanent collection of the Newport Art Museum, Newport, Rhode Island, USA, and at Lettre International in Berlin, Germany.

Minoo Emami Alagha

Art by Adjunct Professor Minoo Emami Alagha