Artist Statement
Darya Kharabi's work explores our relationship to land and one other and imagines new worlds using cut paper, performance, and sculpture. She believes deeply in narratives where prey unite and overthrow their oppressors, and in small, delicate things having a lot of power. Through cut paper, Darya experiments with ornament and composition to process the state of the world, investigate things that live in the periphery, and make speculative realities that agitate for collectivity. Using sculpture and performance, Darya explores labor, connects with land, and confronts constructed barriers like borders and time. Walking is a central part of their process, especially in nature.
As a diasporic Iranian, Darya constantly considers their access to America’s land while being barred from their own through borders, sanctions, and totalitarian threats. Relegated to secondhand meeting places to be with their family, they wonder what home is when their loved ones are barred again and again from the land they were raised in, by coincidence of birth and passport.
CV
Education
Carnegie Mellon University
Sept 2016 - Dec 2020
BA in Social & Political History
Minor in Art
Solo* & Collaborative Exhibitions
2026
Tomayko Foundation, In The Light of Your Shadow, Pittsburgh, PA
Brewhouse Arts, I Remember It Better, Pittsburgh, PA
2025
Sweetwater Center for Arts, 50 More, Sewickley, PA
folkLAB, folkFEST 2025, Homestead, PA
2024
Charm School Projects, Appendix, New York, NY
2021
Thomas Merton Center, Lost & Found: A Pop-Up Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
2018
Frame Gallery, Collective Skin, Pittsburgh, PA
Future Tenant, Object & Body, Pittsburgh, PA
Ellis Gallery, Arugula, Pine Nuts, Goat Cheese, and Fruit, Pittsburgh, PA
2017
Ellis Gallery, No Different From Your Other, Pittsburgh, PA*
Ellis Gallery, A Perfect Home, Pittsburgh, PA
Awards & Residencies
Brew House Arts Distillery Residency, Pittsburgh, PA, 2025-26
Carnegie Mellon Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship 2017
Art Farm Artist Residency, Marquette, NE, 2026
Tongue River Artist Residency, Dayton, WY, 2026