Taher Shafie
I was born in Switzerland and raised in Iran between the Zagros mountains and the border of Mesopotamia. Those formative years left a deep impression on me with regards to ancient and prehistoric art and images, including that of the ancient civilizations of West and Central Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, along with dynastic Egyptian wall paintings and pre-Columbian art of the Americas.
After immigrating to America I attended art school in California and New York. While in art school I was introduced to western 20th century art, including early German Expressionism, Dadaism, and Surrealism—in short all of the modernist movements.
All of these influences speak to my decades of work. While I have experimented in various medium, including sculpture, I focus on painting, mostly in watercolor and oil.
I’ve been living in the New York City metro area for many years and currently reside in the Hudson Valley, just north of New York City. During the 1990s, I lived for two years in Frankfurt, Germany.
I have had the opportunity to exhibit my work in New York City and the surrounding metro area, California, Frankfurt, Bremen, and Bochum, Germany, and Rotterdam, Holland.
