Shabnam Jannesari

Shabnam Jannesari is a distinguished Iranian artist whose work has been widely exhibited across the United States and internationally. She earned her Master of Fine Arts (MFA), with honors, from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Her solo exhibition She Sat Where the Light Awaited is on view at the Erie Art Museum (Erie, PA) from September 2025 through March 2026. Recent exhibitions include Made in the Plains at the Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha, NE, 2025) and Look but Look with Love, a two-person show at the NARS Foundation (Brooklyn, NY, 2024).
She has presented solo exhibitions such as Each String is a Thread, Each Color a Chord at the Nebraska Arts Council (Omaha, NE) and The Carpet Grew Like a Garden at Gallery 263 (Cambridge, MA). Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions including the Mid-Atlantic Biennial at the University of Mary Washington (VA), A Pot Nudged into Oblivion at Miranda Art Project Space (NYC), Narrative Imperative at the University of Connecticut.
Her paintings are held in both private and institutional collections, including Fidelity Investments and the University of Massachusetts School of Law.
Jannesari’s work explores the struggles and resilience of Iranian women, addressing themes of identity, memory, and societal expectation.
She is a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (2020, 2022) and the Distinguished Art Fellowship at UMass Dartmouth (2018–2021). In 2025, she was selected for the prestigious Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture residency.
She currently serves as Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Education

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) with Distinction in Studio Art, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dartmouth MA, 2021