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Bio
Renée Khatami grew up in Manhattan with an Iranian father and New York mother. She studied art as an undergraduate at Bard College, and later completed Masters degrees in design (Pratt Institute) and art education (New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development). She worked as a graphic designer (and as Art Director at Abbeville Press) for many years, specializing in art books. After earning her Art Education degree, she published two children’s books on learning colors through your senses (Random House). Now she is solely focused on her art.
Two Coats of Paint – Review by Mary Sargent, Renée Khatami’s shimmering surfaces
Statement
I work with a seemingly incongruous combination of mediums, which include plastic, graphite, gouache, glue, wood, and tape on paper. The process involves a progression from two to three dimensions, a layering of the media. It is crucial to be fearless about the materials, particularly the paper, while simultaneously working with the delicate, continuous tension of varying textures. This subtly works against a reverence towards the materials, since they are a vocabulary, not an end in themselves–a language of color, shape, and line.