Still We Bloom: Stories of Memory, Migration, and Renewal
Pop-up Exhibition July 9 – July 30
“Like seeds carried across great distances, we take root in unfamiliar ground. We adapt, persist, and continue to grow,” says featured artist, Arghevan Booyeh, “that is why we titled the show, Still We Bloom.”
Doors open for AHA Night!
Opening celebration July 9th, AHA! Night from 5pm – 9pm. The opening night celebration will offer guests an opportunity to meet the artists and learn more about their creative process. Stay a while to enjoy the art and enjoy beats provided by AnjKep. Full event info here.
Can’t make AHA Night?
Gallery open hours are available Wednesday’s & Friday’s from 4pm – 7pm for the duration of the exhibition.
Still We Bloom: Stories of Memory, Migration, and Renewal is a pop-up exhibition featuring eight Iranian artists exploring belonging across places, cultures, and time. The mixed-media exhibition includes 2D and 3D artworks by Arghevan Booyeh (mixed media sculptor), Anis Beigzadadeh (Ceramics), Sarah Valinezhad (painter), Maryam Seraji (Illustration), Zara Shahi (Fiber), Elham Hajesmaili (Painter), Ali Masoumzadeh (Painter), and Azin Majooni (Printmaking). Their works move between memory and presence, grief and hope, tracing identities shaped by movement, change, and endurance.
“Like seeds carried across great distances, we take root in unfamiliar ground. We adapt, persist, and continue to grow,” says Arghevan Booyeh, that is why we titled the show “Still We Bloom.” Booyeh is one of the featured artists in the exhibition. She is completing her Masters thesis in the UMass Dartmouth CVPA graduate program with a focus in textiles and fiber.
The exhibition is a temporary pop-up exhibition installed at 127 Union Street in New Bedford. Produced by Massachusetts Design Art & Technology Institute, DATMA, an art institute without walls producing contemporary art, the exhibition fills a vacant storefront to activate the downtown and contribute to the city’s arts and culture during the month of July. Visitors can access the exhibition starting July 9 through July 30th on most Fridays and by appointment.
Download Full Press Release HERE.
Artwork featured above:
“The Hero Rises” 2024 by Arghevan Booyeh. Cotton Macrame Cord, bronze. Dimensions: 127 x 30 x 25 inches
Artworks featured below include:
“Engulfed” 2017 by Elham Hajesmaeili, Acrylic on Canvas. Dimensions: 50 x70 inches
“Honor” 2025 Anis Beigzadadeh, Ceramic, luster, fiber, and basket materials
Thank you to our exhibition sponsor and host, Lanagan & Co, Inc. Please inquire if interested in leasing the space for your business, organization, or event.
Additional support and overall enthusiasm provided by New Bedford Creative, the NBEDC, and the New Bedford Housing Authority who all support the activation of vacant storefront in creative ways like pop-up exhibitions and community-driven initiatives.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Arghavan Booyeh is an Iranian-born fiber artist and sculptor completing an MFA at UMass Dartmouth, where she also teaches, bringing a background in law and a focus on social justice and women’s rights into her practice. Her sculptural work uses weaving and varied materials to honor women as agents of strength, resistance, and transformation. She has exhibited at several venues, including the New Bedford Art Museum.
Anis Beigzadeh is an interdisciplinary artist from Iran, currently living in Massachusetts. She received a BFA in Painting from Bahonar University and MFA in Ceramics from UMass Dartmouth. She has long drawn inspiration from the intricate patterns and colors of her cultural heritage, which she now translates onto the surfaces and forms of her hybrid creations. Working with clay allows her to find a meditative practice with which to tell stories about home, culture, and identity. Her Persian background and experiences in art-making fuel her ambition to make a meaningful mark on the art world.
Ali Masoumzadeh is an artist from Iran, currently based in Massachusetts, working across drawing, painting, installation, and bookmaking. The work explores transformation, adaptation, and the shifting nature of identity through images and structures that resist fixed interpretation. Rooted in personal experience and cultural memory, each project approaches change not as a subject, but as an ongoing process that shapes both form and meaning.
Azin Majooni is an artist and educator based in Massachusetts. Her work grows from a deep interest in material, memory, and transformation, with a particular focus on the expressive possibilities of paper. She holds an MFA in Printmaking from UMass Dartmouth, where her primary focus was papermaking. Beginning her creative path as a graphic designer with a PhD in Visual Communication, she has since expanded her practice to include printmaking and handmade paper. Through these processes, she explores the tactile qualities of materials and the ways they can hold traces of memory, movement, and change. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and sites, including the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and the Bristol Art Museum. She is currently a part-time lecturer at UMass Dartmouth.
Maryam Mahmoudiseraji is a Persian picture book and editorial illustrator based in Massachusetts. Her work focuses on editorial illustration and poster design, combining traditional and digital techniques, including color pencil, stencil printmaking, and digital media. Her illustrations have been recognized internationally, with selections in Creative Quarterly and Graphis (USA), as well as the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Her upcoming exhibition, Libres Comme L’Art, will be presented in Paris, continuing her exploration of storytelling, social issues, and visual communication through illustration.
E L H A M Hajesmaeili is an Iranian artist based in California. Working through painting, sculptural processes, and mixed media, her work explores how the experience of distance shapes the body, memory, and identity over time. She holds an MFA in Painting and Drawing and a Ph.D. in Art Education and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from The Pennsylvania State University.
Sarah Valinezhad is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Dartmouth, MA, teaching foundation-level courses in two-dimensional arts and digital media at UMass Dartmouth. Her practice is research-driven and centers on feminism, memory, and narrative image-making, using painting and illustration to examine psychological space and domestic histories through visual storytelling. Across my studio and teaching practice, she emphasizes critical inquiry, material experimentation, and visual rigor.
Zara Shahi is an interdisciplinary artist working across different mediums, with weaving at the center. With a BFA in Textile Design, she is currently pursuing an MFA in Fibers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Her work has been presented in international and national exhibitions. Her practice is shaped by lived experience, self-observation, and the emotional weight of in-between spaces. She explores inner struggles shaped by the environment, a theme reflected throughout her artistic expression. She examines dualities including presence and absence, concealment and revelation, and fragility and endurance. Across mediums, she carries memory, silence, and resistance while holding softness as strength.
