NEW YORK – The Association of Greek American Professional Women (AGAPW) in collaboration with ALLILONnet continued the online spring 2022 Conversation with Women Leaders Lecture Series on April 25 with artist Aphrodite Navab discussing her solo exhibition, The Anahita Scrolls, currently on view at the A.I.R. Gallery, 155 Plymouth Street in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood. Art historian Tiffany Apostolou introduced Navab.

Olga Alexakos, AGAPW President, welcomed everyone to the Zoom event, noting how long it had been since she had seen many of the attendees and wishing everyone a happy Easter and happy name day to all those celebrating. Anastasia Romanou in her welcoming remarks also wished everyone a happy Easter and happy name day before introducing the speakers for the event, Apostolou and Navab.

The aim of these discussions, according to AGAPW, is to broaden the appreciation and understanding of contemporary topics in science, the arts, and the humanities, while building a community of leaders supporting each other in their endeavors.

As Apostolou noted in her introduction to Navab, the color red figures prominently in the exhibition as it symbolizes life, death, and love. Images from Navab’s Instagram page highlighted the dynamic works in the exhibition and impressed all the attendees.

Navab spoke movingly about her solo exhibition and her art, noting her inspiration and process, her Persian and Greek heritage, and how her experience of exile informs her work.

The Persian goddess Anahita, the Persian Aphrodite, as Navab described her, is central to the exhibition and is a multi-dimensional figure, not only the goddess of fertility, she was also the goddess of the waters and a warrior goddess. Navab said that she wanted to bring Anahita into the present, especially as A.I.R. Gallery, founded by women and exhibiting the work of women artists, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

For Navab, the goddess Anahita is a feminist hero who stands in contrast to the patriarchal ideologies of her childhood in Iran. There, she lived under a monarchy which was then overthrown by a theocracy, both led exclusively by men. Her family fled after the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79, and went into exile.

Navab’s multimedia installation is a multi-sensory experience for the viewer and not to be missed. The Anahita Scrolls is on view through May 22 at the A.I.R. Gallery.

More information about the exhibition is available online: https://www.airgallery.org/.

Born in Iran and based in New York, the artist Aphrodite Désirée Navab mines her Iranian, Greek, and American heritage, calling forth its competing histories, myths, and politics and tracing its impact on her personal identity. In 2004, she completed an Ed.D doctorate in Art Education at Columbia University. She received her BA magna cum laude in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard College in 1993.

Navab’s art has been featured in over one hundred and fifty exhibitions and is included in a number of permanent collections including The Addison Gallery of American Art; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; the Lowe Art Museum; the Harn Museum of Fine Arts; Casoria Contemporary Art Museum, Naples, Italy; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Arkansas State University. Navab had a solo museum show, Landmines of Memory, at the Addison Gallery of American Art (January-April 2021). She had a solo exhibition, The Homeling, at Johannes Vogt Gallery in New York (January-February 2018). Her art was exhibited at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in the traveling group museum show Men of Steel, Women of Wonder (February 9-April 22, 2019).

The next Conversation with Women Leaders online lecture takes place on Monday, May 9, 7-8 PM, with Mary Papaschinopoulou, J.D., M.L.E. on Women Entrepreneurs in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A European Perspective, introduced by Anastasia Romanou, PhD.

The spring 2022 lecture series concludes on Monday, May 23, 7-8 PM, with Athina Petropoulou, PhD, on Radar Systems for the Non-Expert, introduced by Pannie Trifillis, PhD.

The link is the same for all lectures: https://bit.ly/3rOvUmX.

Zoom Meeting ID: 939 6879 4049

Passcode: 378527