artists
Elnaz Javani
Elnaz Javani is an artist and educator who works across textiles, sculpture, and drawing. Her practice delves into personal and cultural memory, often reflecting on her experience of migration and identity.
Javani’s intricate works frequently incorporate traditional textile techniques, exploring how material and process can serve as vehicles for storytelling. Javani has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, and she often addresses themes of displacement, the body, and the intersection of personal and collective histories through the lens of fiber art. Javani holds an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she received the New Artist Society Merit Scholarship, and a BFA from Tehran University of Art.
Javani is the recipient of the Terra Foundation Grant 2025, New Voices 2024 award from Print Center New York, a 2024, 2025 CSU Professional Development award, a 2023 Chicago Individual Artists Program grant, and the 2023 Center for Craft Artist Cohort Grant.
She was also awarded Faculty Enrichment Grants from SAIC for 2021–2022 and was named one of Chicago’s Breakout Artists of 2022. Additionally, she has received a Spark Grant from the Chicago Artists Coalition (2021), the Kala Art Institute Fellowship Award and Residency Grant (2020), the Define American Art Fellowship Grant (2020), and the Hyde Park Art Center Flex Space Residency Award (2019).
Javani’s intricate works frequently incorporate traditional textile techniques, exploring how material and process can serve as vehicles for storytelling. Javani has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, and she often addresses themes of displacement, the body, and the intersection of personal and collective histories through the lens of fiber art. Javani holds an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she received the New Artist Society Merit Scholarship, and a BFA from Tehran University of Art.
Javani is the recipient of the Terra Foundation Grant 2025, New Voices 2024 award from Print Center New York, a 2024, 2025 CSU Professional Development award, a 2023 Chicago Individual Artists Program grant, and the 2023 Center for Craft Artist Cohort Grant.
She was also awarded Faculty Enrichment Grants from SAIC for 2021–2022 and was named one of Chicago’s Breakout Artists of 2022. Additionally, she has received a Spark Grant from the Chicago Artists Coalition (2021), the Kala Art Institute Fellowship Award and Residency Grant (2020), the Define American Art Fellowship Grant (2020), and the Hyde Park Art Center Flex Space Residency Award (2019).
Javani is a recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including:
– New Voices 2024, Print Center New York
– 2023 Center for Craft Artist Cohort Grant
– Faculty Enrichment Grants, SAIC (2021–2022)
– Breakout Artist of the Year 2022, Newcity Chicago
– Spark Grant, Chicago Artists Coalition (2021)
– Kala Art Institute Fellowship and Residency Grant (2020)
– Define American Art Fellowship Grant (2020)
– Flex Space Residency, Hyde Park Art Center (2019)
With an evocative visual language grounded in both material and memory, Javani’s work speaks to the complexities of belonging, the traces of lived experience, and the resilience of the human spirit.
– New Voices 2024, Print Center New York
– 2023 Center for Craft Artist Cohort Grant
– Faculty Enrichment Grants, SAIC (2021–2022)
– Breakout Artist of the Year 2022, Newcity Chicago
– Spark Grant, Chicago Artists Coalition (2021)
– Kala Art Institute Fellowship and Residency Grant (2020)
– Define American Art Fellowship Grant (2020)
– Flex Space Residency, Hyde Park Art Center (2019)
With an evocative visual language grounded in both material and memory, Javani’s work speaks to the complexities of belonging, the traces of lived experience, and the resilience of the human spirit.
Artist's works