Fahimeh's profile
Fahimeh Vahdat, born in Iran, is an American mixed-media installation/performance artist and a women’s, children’s, and human rights activist, including the LGBTQ communities. She is based in the Greater Baltimore/Washington DC region. Vahdat’s work consistently addresses contemporary social issues through a variety of traditional and non-traditional materials, including fiber, dyes, wood, found and natural materials, paper, canvas, and her own body. Sewing, veiling, handwritten, printed, and spoken words are integral components of her installations and live performances.
Vahdat has received numerous awards, including the 2024 Creativity Award from the Howard County Arts Council, the 2020 Maryland State Individual Artist Grant, the 2018 Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Rubys Project Grant, the NEA Regional Grant for the Sacred Crossing mixed-media installation, and the Puffin Foundation grant for a collaborative stage production. Fahimeh was a nominee for the Anonymous Was a Woman Award in 2022 and was one of six finalists in the Inter- and Multi-Disciplinary Art category for the Baker Artist Award in both 2022 and 2023. In 2024, Vahdat was recognized with the “Artist of the Year Award” by the Howard County Arts Council.
Vahdat has exhibited her work locally, nationally, and internationally at venues such as the Arlington Art Center, RCF Gallery, Irving Art Center, Yinchuan Art Museum (China), Cultural Art Center (Argentina), Milwaukee Art Museum, and the University of Italy in Naples, among others.
In addition to her artistic practice, Vahdat is involved in various community engagement initiatives. She works with Amnesty International, Change.org, and the Howard County Human Rights Office in Columbia. She currently serves on the board of the Southern Graphic Council International (SGCI) and on the Steering Committee for Arts and Culture of Howard County for the next two years.
Vahdat has been a visiting artist at numerous residencies, including the National Printmaking Residency at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) in 2022 and the Printmaker Residency in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2019. She has also been a Wampler Eminent Visiting Artist/Scholar at James Madison University and a year-long artist-in-residence at RedLine Milwaukee, where the intersection of art and social justice is explored. She currently is a professor and director at the Howard Community College.
Social activism, including human rights violation particularly in Iran, violence against women, girls, and the LGBTQ communities—especially domestic violence in both Iran and the USA—has been central to Vahdat’s artistic practice and teaching for nearly 30 years. She views activism in her art as a crucial tool to catalyze social consciousness and encourage various communities and public participation for positive change and healing. In short, Fahimeh Vahdat’s work embodies Healing Art.
