biography

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Hushidar Mortezaie is a US Iranian born fashion designer, visual artist, and graphic designer. A former New Yorker, he now resides in Los Angeles after immigrating to the Bay Area of California from Iran in 1975.

Mortezaie’s work explores the paradoxes of contemporary culture through fashion ,identity, and the inevitable cycle of branding. He implements traditional and modern textile hand techniques from both east and west to adapt his own distinct style. Mortezaie layers these mediums into installations and political pop art fashion statements with set design and costumes to tell visual stories, create characters, and design clothing that poses questions. Mortezaie ’s work prompted the rise of Islamic motifs in NYC fashion and Iranian New Wave conceptual art in the late 1990s-2000s through his pioneer celebration of his heritage while rejecting the victim narrative enforced upon Muslim artists in the west. His collaborative photo the Brotherhood, redefining masculinity and dissolving borders, won first prize in the 2019 Focus Iran 3 Biennial, placing the lgbtq voice and young Iranian mens’ dreams at the center of a war mongering media landscape . His work has been featured extensively in publications including Vogue, Huffington Post, ID, LA Times, Art Forum, and Harper’s Bazaar. Mortezaie has shown his work at galleries including Southern Exposure SF, Somarts, the Craft Contemporary, Roski School of Arts USC, Vane Gallery UK, the V & A London ,and the De Young Museum, SF.