About Priya Assal

Priya Assal Gheysari is an Iranian artist living between Tehran and San Francisco. While most of her training and experience is in painting, today her work extends to sculpture and installation art.

Priya’s multimedia work is largely inspired by the Goddess archetype and by her own conscious evolution as a woman. Most of her paintings and sculptures are depictions of colorful imaginary female characters that embody innocence, power and quirkiness.

Priya’s installations are imaginary sets that are inspired by her personal fetish and fantasies. In many ways, they are playgrounds where she and her audience can step into and role play alter egos in altered realities.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Visual aesthetic is not only a necessity in my life but often an obsession.  When it comes to painting, I simply can’t imagine anything more beautiful than the feminine essence.  Whether it is her form, her ability to create, or her magnetism, I simply am in love with all of  her expressions.

With installation spaces, I am drawn to experiencing my wildest fantasies through them. As a child growing up in the Iran-Iraq war, I would often withdraw under a little table in my room, cover it up with a blanket and create a soothing space where I felt safe, happy and inspired.  Today, I am still drawn to manipulating space so that I may experience, even if for a short while, a fantasy that lies in the depth of my imagination.