Bio

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.

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

Ph.D. The Pennsylvania State University, PA, United States, Aug 2018 – May 2023

M.F.A. The Pennsylvania State University, PA, United States, Aug 2015 – May 2017

M.A. The University of Art, Tehran, Iran, Aug 2007 – May 2010

B.F.A Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran, Aug 2002 – May 2006

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCES

Research Assistant, Penn State University, Aug 2021 – May 2023

Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education Initiative

Teacher Assistant, Penn State University, Jan 2021 – May 2021

Introduction to Visual Arts (ART001, online)

Fixed Term Instructor, Penn State University, Jan 2020 – May 2020

Beginning Oil Painting (ART 250)

Teacher Assistant, Penn State University, Aug 2018 – Dec 2019

Introduction to Drawing (ART 20, online)

Fixed Term Instructor, Penn State University, Jul 2017 – Jul 2018

Introduction to Drawing (ART 20)

Teacher Assistant, Penn State University, Aug 2015 – May 2017, Introduction to Drawing (ART 20, online)

Fixed Term Instructor, Payame Noor University, Yazd, Iran, Aug. 2013 – Dec. 2013, Handicrafts in Iran and Worldwide

Fixed Term Instructor, Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran, Aug. 2012 – Dec. 2012, Islamic Art

Teacher Assistant, Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran, Jan 2011 – May. 2011, Introduction to Sculpture

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

• “Beyond Country, Within Gender” The Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania, Lemont, Aug 2023

• “I am still doing well!” Humpday Gallery, Penn State University, Nov 2018

• “Pendulum of Identity,” Edwin. W. Zoller Gallery, Penn State University, May 2017

• “No Goddess Stands Alone,” Shalman Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran, Dec 2014

• “Free Goddess,” Faryad Gallery, Kerman, Iran, May 2013

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

• “Graduate VR Exhibition,” CPAD Lab, Penn State University, March 2023

• “Art at The Center: Transdisciplinary Creativity,” Borland Project Space, Penn State University, October 2019

• “That’s What She Said,” Edwin. W. Zoller Gallery, Penn State University, March 2019

• “About the Body” A mini art show for the Overlap: Full Circle exhibition, Penn State University, December 2018

• “Transformed: Digital to Corporeal,” The Kresge Gallery, Marywood University, Scranton, PA, May 2018

• Curated Exhibition: “Spring Fever,” Humpday Gallery, Penn State University, February 2018

• The 32nd Graduate Research Exhibition, HUB-Robeson Gallery, Penn State University, April 2017

• “Pattern Recognition,” Woskob Family Gallery, State College, PA, January 2017

• “Hand Candy, A Ceramic Lending Library,” Patterson Gallery, Penn State University, Nov 2016

• “In Between” Group Installation, Humpday Gallery, Penn State University, October 2016

• “Representing Nittany: Travelling Exhibition,” The Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania, Lemont Arts Festival, Lemont, PA, Sept 2016

SELECTED ARTWORK COLLECTIONS, PUBLICATIONS, AND INTERVIEWS

• “Star-crossed,” cover page of Klio, Penn State Creative Art Journal, May 2023, https://klio.psu.edu/

• “Single Mom” gifted to Penn State Art Education Program Collection, Oct 2021

• “Hidden Point” was gifted to the Penn State Art Education Program Collection. Mar 2020

• Interviewed by Sara Voigt. “Litdish: Elham Hajesmaeili, Artist,” Lunch Ticket. Spring, 2019 https://lunchticket.org/litdish-elham-hajesmaeili-artist/

• Krause, M. “CAUTION! This is part of her identity” [Photostory], Dec 2018. https://megankrs.wordpress.com/2016/12/07/caution-this-is-a-part-of-her-identity/

• Hajesmaeili, E. “Pendulum of identity,” Lunch Ticket, 12. Winter 2018. https://lunchticket.org/pendulum-of-identity/

• Hajesmaeili, E. (2018). About the Body. Beehive Magazine, 2, 23-34

• Hajesmaeili, E. (2018). Hidden Point. Trestle Gallery.https://trestlegallery.submittable.com/gallery/0dcc203a-eccc-4f6b-9316 a09189b07967/10558499

SELECTED HONORS, MEMBERSHIPS, AND OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

• Coordinator and organizer of “Voices of Resilience” performance art in Solidarity with the “Woman, Life, Freedom” Movement in Iran, Penn State University, Oct 2022

• The Vice President of Iranian Student Association (ISA), Penn State University, Feb 2020 – 2022

• Presenter and Active National Art Education Association (NAEA) Member, Nov 2019-2023

• Member of Graduate Art Education Association (GAEDA), Penn State University, Aug 2018-2023

• Member of College Art Association (CAA), October 2018-2020

• Recipient of Graham Fellowship, Penn State University, Aug 2015

Artist Statement

For me, distance is an estranging experience. Rather than treating distance as absence, I understand it as a force that transforms perception, turning the body into an interior space where fragments of the past are held, concealed, and reconfigured. Distance changes the way memory is felt. What is left behind does not disappear; it returns incomplete, through traces of home, unresolved emotions, and things that cannot be fully expressed through language. I am interested in how these traces settle inside the body, not as clear narratives, but as pressures, interruptions, and hidden openings. Across painting, sculptural forms, and mixed media, I explore the body as a form altered by distance. No longer whole or fixed, the body becomes an unfamiliar place to be entered, questioned, and explored again and again.

Moving between visibility and concealment, rupture and repair, my work explores the unstable boundary between what is lived and what is buried. The body becomes a threshold where what has remained hidden begins, slowly, to take form.