Romanus Mattonen | A Contemporary Iranian Artist

 

Romanus Mattonen's Paintings

Iranian artist Romanus Mattonen was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1980. Her parents chose to travel to the United States after the Persian Revolution, but they left once their tourist visas ran out. Romanus thus continued to reside in the United States for almost twenty-five years as an undocumented immigrant. Her assessment of her life was significantly impacted by her "suspended" status, which was evident in her artistic output. Her paintings blur the distinctions between race, heritage, and tradition by combining people of many ethnicities with traditional clothing patterns. She graduated with a painting MFA from Academy of Art University in 2012 after earning a fine arts BA from California College of Art in 2003. She established three galleries, exhibits her paintings in several Californian towns, and her works are included in collections of modern fine art worldwide. She is a painting instructor at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco right now.