Please join us for Distance, an MFA thesis exhibition by Fort Worth–based Iranian artist Katayoun Hosseinrad. The exhibition will be on view from May 7–10, 2026, with an opening reception on Thursday, May 7 from 6–8 pm in the Student Gallery located in Moudy North Building. 

Distance is rooted in the artist’s experience of growing up in a traditional society where the boundary between inside and outside was deeply gendered: the domestic interior was considered a woman’s domain, while the expansive world outside belonged to men. As Hosseinrad grew older, she began to feel a subtle but persistent pressure to remain inside. This inequality and tension between interior and exterior continue to shape her artistic practice.

Through painting, Hosseinrad depicts domestic spaces not only as physical environments but also as metaphors for the body and for emotional states such as loneliness, entrapment, and isolation. These private interiors allow her to weave personal identity into a broader, contemporary, and universal visual language. She often paints from memory, transforming remembered images rather than simply reproducing visual sources.
Hosseinrad received her BA in Persian painting from Tabriz Islamic Arts University and was formally trained in traditional techniques. This foundation continues to inform her approach to composition, spatial construction, surface treatment, and color relationships. Although her subject matter is contemporary, her attention to flattened space, careful structuring of form, and formal decisions emerge from this early training.

Windows appear frequently in her work, functioning as symbols of both escape and possibility. For Hosseinrad, looking outside as a child was an act of searching and hope. Yet the outside world is not always promising; it can feel just as distant and cold as the interior. This unresolved tension between inside and outside remains central to her work.

Hosseinrad’s practice also extends beyond painting into installation. In Distance, She explores the creation of an artificial Persian carpet—an element central to Iranian domestic life. Traditionally crafted by women, the carpet serves as both a collective cultural object and a deeply personal symbol of nostalgia for the artist as an immigrant. Reconstructing the carpet becomes an act of holding onto memory, both tender and melancholic, reflecting a complicated love–hate relationship with the past. Through Distance, Hosseinrad creates spaces that are strange yet familiar, personal yet universal—places where questions of belonging, memory, gender, and migration can be quietly felt and reflected upon.

About the Artist:
Katayoun Hosseinrad is an Iranian artist living and working in Fort Worth, Texas. She is currently completing her Master of Fine Arts degree at Texas Christian University. She has had solo exhibitions at Lyles & King, New York (Invisible Boundaries) and 12.26, Dallas (Realm of Absence). Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at SP/N Gallery, Steven Zevitas Gallery, The Pool, The Château Show, and in publications such as New American Paintings (2025 MFA Annual, Issue #177) and Glasstire. Her work explores interiority, memory, and distance through painting and installation.

The Student Gallery is located on the TCU campus at 2805 S. University Dr, Fort Worth, TX 76129. Admission is free and all are welcome. Visitors are welcome to visit when the building is open from 9 am-5 pm or by appointment. For more information about this exhibition, email theartgalleries@tcu.edu or call 817-257-2588.