About
Born in Tehran and based in Minneapolis, Katayoun Amjadi is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and independent curator. Her work explores diasporic identity, memory, and the interplay of low- and high-art forms, often using iconography, symbolism, and storytelling to probe the relationships between past and present, tradition and modernity, and individual and collective identity. Through ceramics, installation, video, sculpture, writing, and social activism, Amjadi interrogates sociopolitical systems—language, religion, gender, politics, and nationalist ideologies—while reflecting on global crises and the interwoven roots of history. Her work balances acerbic humor and subtle irony with a serious engagement with power, representation, and human resilience.
Amjadi holds an MFA in ceramics and sculpture from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and currently serves as the Saint Paul City Artist in Residence with Public Art Saint Paul. She teaches at the University of Minnesota and St. Olaf College, mentors MFA students at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, and co-runs a studio arts building where she maintains a ceramics practice in northeast Minneapolis.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Minnesota Museum of American Art, Rochester Art Center, Weisman Art Museum, South Dakota Museum of Art, Des Moines Art Center, Beijing Film Academy, Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts, and Haftsamar Gallery in Tehran. Selected awards include the MCAD-Jerome Emerging Artist Award (2020–2021), Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants, the MSAB Creative Individual Grant (2024), and the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship (2025–2028).
In conversations with:
- Erin Shafkind, “Materials, Methods, Meaning: Abundance and Loss in the Art of Katayoun Amjadi”, Ceramics Monthly magazine, February 2023 issue.
- Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara, 2020/2021 MCAD Jerome Fellowship Exhibition Catalogue Essay.
- Erik Tormoen, “Pomegranates, Chickens, and Toilet Brushes: The Bold Art of Katayoun Amjadi”, Minnesota Monthly magazine, 25 April 2019.
- Kate Drakulic, “In Studio with Katayoun Amjadi”, N Studio Magazine.org, Fall 2018.
- Jacob Van Blarcom, “Karlsruhe Academy Exchange: On Names and Transition”, University of Minnesota Art Department, 28 December 2018.
- Susannah Schouweiler, “NEMMA Artist Series: Reconciling a Hyphenated Identity,” Mn Artists.org, 3 June 2016.