About

Badiyeh Arts is an artist-run initiative founded by artists Negin Mahzoun and Tooraj Khamenehzadeh, dedicated to curatorial practice, cultural exchange, and collective growth. Centered on collaboration and experimentation, Badiyeh fosters opportunities for artists, curators, writers, and cultural organizers to connect across disciplines and borders.

With Rybon Art Center, they initiated a platform to encourage artistic experimentation and foster exchanges of ideas beyond ethnic and regional boundaries, creating connections between local and international contemporary art practices. Later, with Kooshk Artist Residency, they expanded this vision by breaking the isolation of Iran’s art scene and fostering fearless international dialogue, collaboration, and experimentation, strengthening networks and creating exchanges with institutions and artists worldwide.

Rooted in adaptability and care, Badiyeh Arts continues this trajectory—building from lived experience and drawing on its international network and collective knowledge as a resource to foster community and cultivate dialogue through curatorial projects, exchanges, studio visits, and publishing. While based in New York, Badiyeh Arts is not defined by geography or borders. Emerging from a commitment to Global South perspectives, its projects move across contexts—bridging communities and imagining new forms of exchange wherever critical dialogue and shared curiosity can take root.

The name Badiyeh (بادیه) comes from Persian poetry and classical literature. It refers to a vast, open desert—symbolizing the journey, unknown paths, and the courage to wander. In Persian idiom, “going into the Badiyeh” often means seeking meaning rather than staying still. The name was chosen to reflect a belief in movement, exploration, and the power of creative wandering.