Afshan Daneshvar

Afshan Daneshvar (b. 1972 Tehran, Iran – lives and works in SF, USA) is a multidisciplinary visual artist, whose works move between drawing and sculpture. Mentored by her father during the early stages of her artistic journey, Daneshvar developed a process rooted in patience, repetition, and contemplation. Her meditative works draw inspiration from "Siah-Mashgh"—Persian calligraphic practice sheets where words and letters are endlessly repeated regardless of meaning for the sake of achieving perfection. 
Since 2015, Daneshvar has expanded her exploration of repetition through the medium of paper—using book pages, newspapers, and even thread as materials of transformation. The act of cutting, layering, and arranging becomes a ritual in itself. In these works, repetition takes on physical form, appearing as dense strata of paper or in the quiet rhythm of razor blades placed with deliberate precision. The marks and cuts evoke both tenderness and tension, as if tracing the fragile boundary between destruction and creation.
Across her practice, Daneshvar maintains a direct dialogue between content and form. The written page, once a vessel of meaning, is reconfigured into a sculptural surface where language dissolves into texture. Through this process of reiteration and reconstruction, she binds past and future together—an ongoing act of remembrance that continually reaffirms the present.
In addition to her participation in numerous group exhibitions in Iran and abroad, Daneshvar’s works are placed in several public collections including Berlin’s Paper Museum, Farjam Collection and Tashkeel Art Collection in the UAE and many prominent private collections.