ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: 

Tara Vahab is a Persian-Canadian interdisciplinary artist and therapeutic arts practitioner based in Calgary. In 2015, she graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and immediately afterwards, founded LOUD (Let Optimism Unleash Dreams) Art Society, a non-profit organization that supports the cultivation of positive mental health and wellbeing through creative practices. 

Much of Vahab’s artistic practice is informed by community connection, through public art projects, murals, performances, and workshops that key into art-making and mental health. Bright colours, patternmaking, found objects, and newspaper are elements that she returns to throughout her practice, which are informed by her research on the metaphysical and its ties to humanity, empathy, and joy. 

At the heart of her practice is a deep appreciation of the power of the arts to change lives for the better. Her ongoing series of woven newspaper sculptures, for example, reframe materials that exacerbate mental health issues for many, to speak to humanity’s ability to take uncertainty and pain and transform it slowly and intentionally, into something beautiful and unexpected. In each of these works, Vahab does not use any glue or adhesives during construction; only torsion force holds them together.  

This year, Vahab received the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, a an award that celebrates and honours exceptional contributions to Alberta’s communities. She has also been awarded with Cultural Leaders Legacy Arts Award, grant funding by Calgary Arts Development and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. As well as running LOUD Art Society, working with CARFAC Alberta, and teaching at the University of Calgary, Vahab is currently completing an extended artist-in-residence program with the Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre. 

taravahab.com
Instagram: @tativahab