ShowUp Announces Iran: Memory X Heartbeat, curated by Roya Khadjavi and the Safarani Sisters
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 12, 2026, Boston – ShowUp is pleased to announce its upcoming guest-curated photography exhibition, Iran: Memory X Heartbeat, on view from November 6th - December 20th, 2026 with an opening reception on Friday, November 6th from 5pm to 8pm.
Curated by Roya Khadjavi and the Safarani Sisters, this exhibition features artwork by Ali Chitsaz, Mehdi Darvishi, Minoo Emami, Eugenie Flochel Jahanshahi, Farzaneh Ghadyanloo, Farsad Labbauf, Tahmineh Monzavi, Dariush Nehdaran, Azadeh Nia, Maryam Palizgir, Safarani Sisters, Mona Sartoveh, Atieh Sohrabi, and Ali Tahayori.
This exhibition brings together a group of Iranian artists emerging from a shared origin yet living across geographies, but whose practices all unfold through distance, displacement, and time. While physically separated from their country of birth, they remain connected to it through treasured memories, a common language, and lived experiences.
The title of the exhibition, Iran: Memory X Heartbeat, alludes to the constant struggle between the heart and the head. It is a reflection of the internal fight these artists and others undertake every day to keep their treasured memory of Iran alive. They let the memory live in their hearts, and avoid their internal concept of the land becoming distant, erased by current events. The artworks do not attempt to reconstruct Iran as it is, but as it is remembered: imagined, and carried. They reveal a space suspended between presence and absence, clarity and distortion - much like memory itself.
Roya Khadjavi: “Iran is more than a word to us. It is something we carry with us every day, in our thoughts, our memories, and our hearts. For many of us, it is the first thought in the morning and the last one before we fall asleep.”
“The word ‘Iran’ holds so many emotions at once: love and fear, hope and uncertainty, courage and struggle,” say the Safarani Sisters. “It carries beautiful memories and painful ones, trauma, and resilience. These conflicting emotions inevitably find their way into the artists’ work, appearing through their images, materials, colors, and stories as expressions of memory, longing, loss, resistance, and hope.”
“This is such an exciting exhibition to have at ShowUp” says Christine O’Donnell, Executive Director of ShowUp. “These artists so eloquently express the struggles of loss, grief, and this sense of longing for the past or somewhere far from the current world in which we now find ourselves. I hope the work will resonate on both a personal and universal level with our visitors.”
ShowUp is open Thursdays - Saturdays 12-5 and Sundays 11-4. An opening reception for Iran: Memory X Heartbeat will be held on Friday, November 6th from 5pm to 8pm, and a First Friday reception on December 4th from 5pm to 8pm. Please refer to our website for additional programming.
About the Curators
Roya Khadjavi is a gallerist, independent curator and cultural producer based in New York City. Under Roya Khadjavi Projects, she has organized over 40 exhibitions since 2014 with over 60 artists and has participated in numerous art fairs internationally to promote the emerging and mid-career and established Iranian artists living in Iran and the diaspora. Roya not only supports their artistic endeavors but also facilitates awareness and cultural dialogue between artistic communities by attending and participating in conferences and panel discussions in the US and in Europe.
Roya has been a collector and a patron of the arts for over 20 years. Since 2008, she has actively led exhibition committee efforts around the art of the Middle East for institutions including the Guggenheim Museum and the Asia Society, where she sat on the steering committee of the critically acclaimed exhibit Iran Modern in 2013. Khadjavi co-founded the Institute of International Education’s Iran Opportunities Fund in 2009 where she remains active fundraising as a committee member and donor. She served as a trustee and later president of the board of the acclaimed New York based non-profit Art in General from 2012-2020. Roya also served as a trustee at the prestigious Lycée Francais de New York as chair of the development committee and co-chair of the strategic plan committee from 2002 to 2011.
Farzaneh and Bahareh Safarani: Alongside their artistic practice, the Safarani Sisters are actively engaged in curating occasional exhibitions, with a particular focus on Iranian artists and the diaspora. This curatorial direction emerged after reconnecting with their former classmates in Iran. The sisters were inspired to create opportunities to showcase their peers’ work.
What began as a personal initiative has since expanded into a broader platform supporting diverse voices across a variety of locales, including Reunion, a Group Exhibition at Kayafas Gallery, which was also shown at Arlington Center for the Arts and Iranian Association of Boston. Farzaneh Safarani has collaborated closely with Roya Khadjavi Projects as an associate, contributing to curatorial and exhibition programming.
About ShowUp
ShowUp is a Boston-based contemporary art gallery and education space focused on featuring underrepresented visions and voices. Focused on sustainability practices, ethics, and the power of representation, ShowUp works to nurture the careers of high-potential, talented curators and artists through thoughtful support, an innovative environment, and unique opportunities.
Its mission is to
CONNECT artists to local communities and beyond
AMPLIFY artists and their voices
PROVIDE artists tools for self-sufficiency
EMPOWER artists and curators to experiment, learn, and have meaningful exchanges
Learn more on ShowUp’s website and Instagram.
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