artists
Elnaz Javani: In conversation with RARARES Gallery
This talk with Elnaz Javani took place as part of an online Q&A series streamed in autumn 2025, organized by RARARES Gallery alongside the exhibition Amina Illuminati. Between Matter and Memory. In the same year, Javani joined RARARES Gallery as a resident artist, marking a significant moment in the articulation of a practice that had already been gaining international institutional and market recognition. Working primarily with textile, Javani constructs layered, fragmented surfaces through labor-intensive, bodily engaged processes rooted in cultural and domestic spheres, including embroidery, collage, dyeing, and fiber-based techniques. These tactile methods carry embedded histories and emotional density, positioning her as one of the most compelling emerging voices of the region and a central figure within the gallery’s program. In this dialogue, Javani reflects on textiles as a sculptural language of memory and on making as a mode of world-building shaped by displacement, restraint, and embodied experience.
RARARES Gallery: Elnaz, for those encountering your work for the first time, could you introduce yourself and your background?
Elnaz Javani:
I grew up in Tehran, Iran, and initially studied painting before becoming strongly connected to the Iranian art scene. After several years of professional practice, I moved to the United States in 2013 to pursue my MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I specialized in fibers and material studies. Since then, I’ve continued developing my practice while also teaching. I am currently an Assistant Professor at Colorado State University, where I lead the fiber area and teach a wide range of textile-based courses.
RARARES Gallery: You are known for your deep immersion in textiles. Why fabric? What drew you to this medium over painting?
Elnaz Javani:
Fabric holds memory—traces of touch, labor, care, and time, both personal and collective. It is the first material we encounter as human beings, creating an enduring sense of intimacy for me. Painting, for me, always felt like there was a distance—something between myself and the surface. In contrast, textiles offered a different relationship: tactile, responsive, intimate. Fabric absorbs gestures and reveals time. In my practice, it becomes a language—one capable of holding emotion, storytelling, and identity through repetition, texture, and tactile assembly. There is also a highly intimate aspect. My father is a tailor, and I grew up surrounded by fabrics, patterns, and garment-making. That environment shaped how I see material. Fabric was always accessible, familiar, and alive to me.
RARARES Gallery: Was there a key moment when you realized textiles were your artistic language?
Elnaz Javani:
Yes. Toward the end of my BFA, I realized painting no longer held the physical intimacy I needed. At the same time, I was engaged with feminist theory, gender studies, and postmodern art practices. The convergence of these intellectual and personal shifts, along with my upbringing and exposure to textiles, formed a foundation that organically guided me toward fiber. Fabric allowed me to reconnect with making with feeling. It offered a way to think through the body, not just the eye. Over time, textiles grew inseparable from how I think, feel, and make.
RARARES Gallery: Your work usually feels deeply emotional yet abstract. Where do your narratives come from?
Elnaz Javani:
They emerge from observation of people, materials, emotions, and unspoken experiences. Much of my work grows out of experienced truths: migration, displacement, trauma, grief, and the complexity of belonging. Reading theory and literature helps me frame these experiences, but intuition and touch guide the work. Textiles demand patience and listening. The process itself becomes a form of thinking. I trust the material to guide me and believe that knowledge exists not only in the mind, but in the body.
RARARES Gallery: How do you balance concept and craft in your practice?
Elnaz Javani:
For me, the physical act of stitching, dyeing, or weaving is inseparable from my conceptual framework. The labor, repetition, and material choices all hold meaning. Rather than intentionally making decisions to “balance” concept and craft, the relationship develops organically through practice. The work thinks alongside me.
RARARES Gallery: Let’s talk about Inner Compulsion, one of your most personal series.
Elnaz Javani:
Inner Compulsion began when I moved to the United States and continued for seven years. It was never intended as a formal project—it began as a private, almost diaristic process in my bedroom. I was going through immigration, emotional intensity, and profound internal shifts, and I needed a place to release and process those experiences. Eventually, I realized I had created dozens of pieces—a visual diary, both fictional and autobiographical. The faceless, genderless, and placeless figures welcome viewers to project their own experiences. The authenticity lies in making these works for survival, without self-censorship.
RARARES Gallery: Your more recent works move into three-dimensional forms, such as My Effigies. Can you tell us about this shift?
Elnaz Javani:
After completing Inner Compulsion, I felt a strong desire to bring these figures into space—to give them physical presence. This shift signaled the beginning of My Effigies, which emerged from that impulse. Language is fundamental here. I grew up bilingual, speaking Azeri at home and Farsi in public, later adding English. That fragmentation of language deeply molded my identity, even before I consciously understood it. In my work, fractured text stitched in imperfect handwriting becomes abstract, echoing that experience. My grandmother also had a strong influence. She told me folkloric stories that lived entirely in imagination. These threads of narrative, spoken but not written, formed my earliest visual worlds. The effigies carry these layered stories: language, memory, childhood, displacement, and ritual. They exist somewhere between the visible and the invisible.
RARARES Gallery: Many of your works feel like they inhabit their own universe.
Elnaz Javani:
I think that’s true. Each work creates a realm in which these figures—abstract, imagined, human—can exist fully. Perhaps that is how I find my way through questions of belonging: by building worlds rather than searching for a single place.
RARARES Gallery: Finally, what are you currently exploring, and where do you see your practice heading?
Elnaz Javani:
I am currently exploring instability, memory, grief, and the relationship between body, space, and time—the feeling of the uncanny. As my perspective evolves, I want my work to represent the multifaceted nature of these experiences, both materially and spatially. I am pushing textiles beyond flat surfaces, treating fabric as sculptural and architectural. Experimentation is endless in fiber, and teaching also feeds my practice—watching students reinterpret techniques constantly opens new possibilities. I feel like I am always playing, always discovering.
Thank you,
Elnaz
Elnaz Javani:
I grew up in Tehran, Iran, and initially studied painting before becoming strongly connected to the Iranian art scene. After several years of professional practice, I moved to the United States in 2013 to pursue my MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I specialized in fibers and material studies. Since then, I’ve continued developing my practice while also teaching. I am currently an Assistant Professor at Colorado State University, where I lead the fiber area and teach a wide range of textile-based courses.
RARARES Gallery: You are known for your deep immersion in textiles. Why fabric? What drew you to this medium over painting?
Elnaz Javani:
Fabric holds memory—traces of touch, labor, care, and time, both personal and collective. It is the first material we encounter as human beings, creating an enduring sense of intimacy for me. Painting, for me, always felt like there was a distance—something between myself and the surface. In contrast, textiles offered a different relationship: tactile, responsive, intimate. Fabric absorbs gestures and reveals time. In my practice, it becomes a language—one capable of holding emotion, storytelling, and identity through repetition, texture, and tactile assembly. There is also a highly intimate aspect. My father is a tailor, and I grew up surrounded by fabrics, patterns, and garment-making. That environment shaped how I see material. Fabric was always accessible, familiar, and alive to me.
RARARES Gallery: Was there a key moment when you realized textiles were your artistic language?
Elnaz Javani:
Yes. Toward the end of my BFA, I realized painting no longer held the physical intimacy I needed. At the same time, I was engaged with feminist theory, gender studies, and postmodern art practices. The convergence of these intellectual and personal shifts, along with my upbringing and exposure to textiles, formed a foundation that organically guided me toward fiber. Fabric allowed me to reconnect with making with feeling. It offered a way to think through the body, not just the eye. Over time, textiles grew inseparable from how I think, feel, and make.
RARARES Gallery: Your work usually feels deeply emotional yet abstract. Where do your narratives come from?
Elnaz Javani:
They emerge from observation of people, materials, emotions, and unspoken experiences. Much of my work grows out of experienced truths: migration, displacement, trauma, grief, and the complexity of belonging. Reading theory and literature helps me frame these experiences, but intuition and touch guide the work. Textiles demand patience and listening. The process itself becomes a form of thinking. I trust the material to guide me and believe that knowledge exists not only in the mind, but in the body.
RARARES Gallery: How do you balance concept and craft in your practice?
Elnaz Javani:
For me, the physical act of stitching, dyeing, or weaving is inseparable from my conceptual framework. The labor, repetition, and material choices all hold meaning. Rather than intentionally making decisions to “balance” concept and craft, the relationship develops organically through practice. The work thinks alongside me.
RARARES Gallery: Let’s talk about Inner Compulsion, one of your most personal series.
Elnaz Javani:
Inner Compulsion began when I moved to the United States and continued for seven years. It was never intended as a formal project—it began as a private, almost diaristic process in my bedroom. I was going through immigration, emotional intensity, and profound internal shifts, and I needed a place to release and process those experiences. Eventually, I realized I had created dozens of pieces—a visual diary, both fictional and autobiographical. The faceless, genderless, and placeless figures welcome viewers to project their own experiences. The authenticity lies in making these works for survival, without self-censorship.
RARARES Gallery: Your more recent works move into three-dimensional forms, such as My Effigies. Can you tell us about this shift?
Elnaz Javani:
After completing Inner Compulsion, I felt a strong desire to bring these figures into space—to give them physical presence. This shift signaled the beginning of My Effigies, which emerged from that impulse. Language is fundamental here. I grew up bilingual, speaking Azeri at home and Farsi in public, later adding English. That fragmentation of language deeply molded my identity, even before I consciously understood it. In my work, fractured text stitched in imperfect handwriting becomes abstract, echoing that experience. My grandmother also had a strong influence. She told me folkloric stories that lived entirely in imagination. These threads of narrative, spoken but not written, formed my earliest visual worlds. The effigies carry these layered stories: language, memory, childhood, displacement, and ritual. They exist somewhere between the visible and the invisible.
RARARES Gallery: Many of your works feel like they inhabit their own universe.
Elnaz Javani:
I think that’s true. Each work creates a realm in which these figures—abstract, imagined, human—can exist fully. Perhaps that is how I find my way through questions of belonging: by building worlds rather than searching for a single place.
RARARES Gallery: Finally, what are you currently exploring, and where do you see your practice heading?
Elnaz Javani:
I am currently exploring instability, memory, grief, and the relationship between body, space, and time—the feeling of the uncanny. As my perspective evolves, I want my work to represent the multifaceted nature of these experiences, both materially and spatially. I am pushing textiles beyond flat surfaces, treating fabric as sculptural and architectural. Experimentation is endless in fiber, and teaching also feeds my practice—watching students reinterpret techniques constantly opens new possibilities. I feel like I am always playing, always discovering.
Thank you,
Elnaz