Niki Zarrabi
October 31, 2018: Niki Zarrabi was born in New Jersey and is a first generation American from a hard-working immigrant family. One of Niki’s sources of inspiration is her father who came to America at a young age and made huge accomplishments in his adopted country even with no connections and no initial knowledge of English. Having moved to Atlanta as a tot she had always studied and loved art. But at the suggestion of her sister Niki, initially planned on attending Georgia Tech to pursue a career in Industrial Design. Along the way, an elective art course at Georgia State convinced Zarrabi to follow her passion. Fortunately, her parents supported her artistic career path as a valid alternative to the doctor/lawyer/engineer career path often followed (willingly or unwillingly) by many first-generation Americans.
Niki successfully addresses the business aspects of art without sacrificing her care for the meaning and power behind the work. With a long-term goal of opening her own gallery, she is an avid networker and believes in creating her own opportunities rather than waiting for them to come along themselves. One of her college art professors lit a proverbial fire under Niki by saying that “out of our whole class there would only be 5 percent of us that would become full-time working artists”. Operating under the assumption that her professor was correct, Zarrabi became even more determined to be one of the five percent.
Influenced by science and biology, the content of Niki’s artwork ranges from realistic floral motifs to pure abstracts. She embraces mixed media and multi-media ranging from painting to sculpture and hybrids of the two. The size of Zarrabi’s artwork ranges from small studio works to large outdoor murals and even a sprawling crosswalk painting in Downtown Atlanta. When you see Niki’s multi-layered artwork, you will find materials including pressed flowers, inks, oils, acrylic, wood, paper, cellophane, and metal. She works out of her suburban garage studio which includes a wood shop for making panels and frames. This quote from Zarrabi’s website bio summarizes her approach to her work: “I’m interested in capturing the idea that every living cell in all the history of time has been recycled from the same elements, passed on to new life from old life. I want to capture that connection between all of us and all living things. Science does not negate spiritual connectivity; it enhances it.”
Here is a sample of some of Niki’s acomplishments:
• Bachelor in Fine Arts with a Concentration in Drawing and Painting from Georgia State University in 2014.
• Awarded regional finalist of the 9th Annual BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® Artisan Series, Atlanta, GA
• Received Best in Show in the juried exhibition of 50 Georgia artists at Abernathy Arts Center in Sandy Springs in 2015
• Guest lecturer at Savannah College of Art and Design
• Selected to create murals for Outerspace Project, Forward Warrior, and Artoberfest.
Link to Niki Zarrabi’s website: https://www.nikizarrabi.com/
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