Portals
MEYER AND SMITH GALLERIES, MAIN LEVEL
Featured artists: Aiza Ahmed, Aryana Minai, and Shyama Golden
Portals explores the psychic, material, and spiritual states of life at the threshold. As a liminal and intermediary space, a portal is a channel between the earthly and divine, the conscious and the unconscious, as well as the material and dreamworld. In Persian, Urdu, and Arabic, darwazeh refers to a gate that reflects a spiritual point of transition. The paintings, sculpture, and installations included in this exhibition explore the idea of a portal as a physical passage, a doorway, a gate, or point of entry, while also referring to mystical and psychic passages via spiritual experience and the imaginary or dreamworld. Against a backdrop of diaspora and exile, the portals in this exhibition evoke experiences of loss and survival, mythology and the uncanny, as well as borders and boundaries. Through material and form each artist creates a multilayered sense of a portal that transports the viewer into another world.
Portals is organized by Donna Honarpisheh, Guest Curator
RELATED PROGRAMS
Portals: Virtual Artist Talk
Tuesday / July 29 / 6pm-7pm
WATCH THE VIRTUAL TALK
Art After Hours
Friday / June 13 / 6pm-9pm
DOWNLOAD THE EXHIBITION CATALOG
Portals. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.
Portals. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.
Portals. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.
Portals. Artwork by Aryana Minai. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.
Portals. Artwork by Aryana Minai. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.
Aryana Minai, Darvaze Noor I / Gateway of Light I and Darvaze Noor I / Gateway of Light II. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.
Aryana Minai, Ruins, 2023. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.
Aryana Minai, Ruins (detail), 2023. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.
Portals. Artwork by Aiza Ahmed. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.
Aiza Ahmed, Staging Wagah, 2024. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.
Portals. Artwork by Shyama Golden, Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.
Portals. Artwork by Shyama Golden. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.
Shyama Golden, Close to Home, 2024. Courtesy the artist and Harper’s Gallery. Photo by Vivian Marie Doering.






