First Fridays: Unblurred Art Show

May Unblurred at Assemble will feature work by Parvaneh Torkaman and Mahnaz Liaghat.

Artists Bio:

Mahnaz Liaghat

was born in Shiraz, Iran, in 1960, is a luminary in art and design. She began her artistic
journey at the age of 14, catching the attention of renowned artists who recognized her talent.
Within six months, she held her debut art show, marking the start of her illustrious career. She
quickly rose in the Iranian art scene, earning three national art awards by age 18, showcasing her
prodigious talent and dedication. She moved to the United States in 1979 and Graduating from
Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1983, she founded Mahnaz International Design and Planning
in Pittsburgh, specializing in hospitality design, which gained widespread acclaim.
Alongside her design career, she taught lighting to undergraduate interior design students and was
ASID president in 2003. In 2005, she was chosen to establish an interior design department in the

United Arab Emirates, where her leadership reshaped Dubai’s skyline. Three years later, she co-
founded the MIRK group, was a lead designer to projects like the Sofitel Palm Jumeirah Resort.

Mahnaz’s design philosophy emphasizes creating experiences that evoke emotion and engage the
senses, transcending conventional boundaries. Her work continues to shape the future of design
globally, reflecting her journey from a gifted young artist in Iran to an esteemed figure in the
international design community, driven by talent, dedication, and visionary leadership.

Parvaneh Torkamani

… is creator of “Resident Persian project” which has shown mostly in Garfield, PA since it became an art hub by the efforts of the people she used to spend time  with, who were artists.

The years were the 1980s and the active young people who she also went to school with were too cool not to join. She went around carrying a notebook and began emulating being a visual artist as well as a poet. (Her poetry can be found on Youtube, Soundcloud, Facebook and Instagram) Surprisingly, after only three months, she came up with something that resembled calligraphy but it was really abstract art. Every line an impression of something; it could be the arch of your eyebrow or the bend of your shoulder; the combination of lines creating characters that were in interaction with each other. The work became a chronicle of life with everything imaginable showing up.

Eventually she graduated from the chronicles. One day when she was painting, she was so happy with the results that she kept telling herself “that’s it, I am finished” and soon she began different ways of exploring her art with wider bolder strokes and eventually became interested in the infinite possibility in mandala art.

Parvaneh Torkamani was born in Tehran Iran in 1963. She came to the United States in 1979 because she was seduced by American movies. She has lived in Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York City and Stuttgart in Germany. Recently she has made Pittsburgh home base. Her Education is eclectic. She is a practicing social worker as well as an artist.