Hand Me Downs, Frankie Krupa Vahdani

Hand Me Downs
Frankie Krupa Vahdani
March 01, 2024 — April 14, 2024

Fuller Rosen Gallery is thrilled to announce Hand Me Downs, a solo exhibition featuring new and recent work by Frankie Krupa Vahdani. Join us for an opening reception on Friday, March 01 from 6-9 pm.

Krupa Vahdani’s practice asks what it means to be a first generation American and a mother-artist. A child of immigrants from Iran and Poland, she highlights how the social, political, and economic spheres demand silent, emotional labor and conformity. Immersing viewers in rich hues of color, Krupa Vhandani uses vibrant patterns and repurposed materials to create bold compositions. Favorite clothes worn to threads, vintage collections inherited from past generations, memories carried forward to a new era — sumptuous poetry remixed in painting and fabric. Whether a viewer’s eyes are open or closed, one cannot escape the magnetic pull of Krupa Vahdani’s creations.

Hand Me Downs centers caregiving as an essential component of artmaking. For Krupa Vahdani, immediate access to her family and daughter are as indispensable to the artist as her studio. From the visually striking crochet piece Green Rag Rug (2024) to the large-scale Big Blue Grief (2014-2024), Krupa Vahdani uses slow processes to confront distorted social perceptions of motherhood and labor. Playing with preconceived notions of the gendered artistic identity, Krupa Vahdani juxtaposes heavy, masculine textiles with bright, light embroidery.

Krupa Vahdani’s work highlights making as legacy; affirmations of past, present, and future. Growing up in a family healing from the Holocaust and pre-Iranian Revolution chaos, Krupa Vahdani navigates the generational trauma by blending both of her family’s visual languages into her own unique dialect filled with vitality and affection. Phosphorescent, color-soaked drawings and textiles are informed by wycinanki — the Polish craft of paper cutting — and classic Persian motifs. In her paintings, Krupa Vahdani’s masterful use of color is immediately striking. The canvas comes alive with spiced, luscious reds that pulse with heat and energy. Juxtaposed against Krupa Vahdani’s warm reds are brilliant blues that command calm and provide tranquil respite. The colors seem to vibrate within, resonating with the viewer’s very essence.

Hand Me Downs serves as validation in the ways motherhood benefits an artistic practice. Deepening and enriching her creative process, Krupa Vahdani’s transformative journey as a parent is a continual catalyst for positive growth. Living and working in a postnatal body demands heightened levels of focus and determination, strengthening Krupa Vahdani’s creativity and studio practice. Hand Me Downs celebrates the timeless value and passion that motherhood brings to the artistic journey.

Frankie Krupa Vahdani (b. 1990, she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist living and making in the Skagit Valley, Washington. Krupa Vahdani graduated from Western Washington University with a BA in Studio Art. Krupa Vahdani has been a resident at Centrum in Port Townsend, WA and has exhibited work at Public Pool Gallery in Los Angeles, CA, The Vestibule in Seattle, WA, and has been featured in Round 2 and 4 of Flat Rate Contemporary’s online exhibitions. Hand Me Downs is Krupa Vahdani’s second exhibition with Fuller Rosen Gallery.

Fuller Rosen Gallery was founded in 2018 by artists EM Fuller (she/her) and BriAnna Rosen (she/her) as a collaborative curatorial project. The gallery exhibits regional, national, and international emerging artists who address urgent, contemporary issues.