Raheleh Filsoofi Biography
Itinerate and Interdisciplinary Artist
Born in Iran, lives in the United State.
Filsoofi, a collector of soil and sound, is an itinerant artist, and community advocate. Her work revolves around themes of movement, immigration, and social activism. Clay and sound serve as her primary expressive mediums, enabling her to create diverse narratives through multimedia installations and immersive performances, along with her dust poems. Her art disrupts the borders that exist between us and seeks a more inclusive world, illuminating and challenging policies and politics.
Filsoofi has exhibited nationally and internationally. Recent and upcoming exhibitions and performances include the Nasher Museum of Art (Durham, NC, 2026), the Frist Art Museum (Nashville, TN, 2026), Telfair Museums (Savannah, GA, 2025), the Gibbes Museum of Art (Charleston, SC, 2024), Untitled Art (Miami Beach, FL, 2024), and Sharjah Biennial 15 (Sharjah, UAE, 2023). She is the curator of the inaugural Clay Performance program at National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) 2026, establishing a new performance-focused initiative within the conference.
She is the recipient of the United States Artists Fellowship (2026), the NCECA Innovator Award (2025), the National Endowment for the Arts Art Projects Grant (2025), the Joan Mitchell Fellowship (2023), the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art (2022), and the Southern Prize Tennessee State Fellowship (2021). Filsoofi is an Assistant Professor of Ceramics in the Department of Art at Vanderbilt University, with a secondary appointment at the Blair School of Music. She received her MFA from Florida Atlantic University and her BFA in Ceramics from Al-Zahra University in Tehran, Iran.
Photo: Amir Aghareb