Pouran Jinchi

Born in Mashhad, a sacred shrine city in Iran, Jinchi became attuned early in life to the ways architecture, objects, decoration, and the written word can be imbued with symbolic power. This awareness is threaded throughout her body of work, which explores the dense intersectionality of literary and pictorial narratives.

As a student at George Washington University, Pouran earned a degree in civil engineering. Though her studies honed her analytical mind, she ultimately decided to pursue a career in the creative field. Trained as a classical calligrapher in Iran, Pouran went on to study art at UCLA and the Art Students League of New York. Drawing on this varied training, Pouran developed her own artistic approach. Her attention to methodology stems from a background as a mathematician; her formal approach reflects a creative tension between the rigid control of traditional Islamic calligraphy and the fluid spontaneity of Western abstract painting.

Jinchi's work has been featured internationally in exhibitions in New York, London, Venice, Dusseldorf, Dubai, Jeddah, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Solo exhibitions include; Fly Like Dandelions, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2024); The Line of March, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2017); Ravaged Garden, NYU Art Gallery, New York, USA (2016); The Blind Owl, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2013); Dawn, Noon and Night, Art Projects International, New York (2012); Ritual Imprint, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2010). 

Her work has also been included in group exhibitions such as: Nahnu: We The Nation of Letters, Wasl Art Space, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2024); Unfinished Business, Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI, USA (2023); Stories of Paper, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2022); Epic Iran, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK (2021); A Boundless Drop to a Boundless Ocean, Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, USA (2021); There Is Fiction In The Space Between, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2020); paperwork: Works on Paper from the Permanent Collection, Newport Art Museum, RI, USA (2020); Collecting Calligraphy, Cincinnati Art Museum, OH, USA (2018); Long, Winding Journeys, Katonah Museum of Art, NY, USA (2018); The Great Game, Iranian Pavilion 56th Venice Biennale, Italy (2015); Deceptively Simple, Art Project International Gallery, New York, USA (2015); Accented, Maraya Art Center, Sharjah, UAE (2015). 

Jinchi's work is collected by museums worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA; the Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA; Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian, Washington, DC, USA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA; Zayed National Museum, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University, USA; Pratt Institute, New York, USA; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, USA; Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI, USA; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH, USA; Jameel Art Centre, Dubai, UAE; Federal Reserve Bank, New York, NY, USA; Sprint Corporation, Kansas City, MO, USA; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar.