About Me

Maryam Takalou is a Dallas-based Iranian artist who explores space, landscape, and memory through video, installation, sculpture, and other visual media. Drawing on Persian painting traditions as alternative modes of perception, she repositions these forms within Western landscapes to examine the body, memory, and their roles in power structures. Her work investigates defamiliarization and the restructuring of landscape, viewing them as visually constructed phenomena rather than objective realities.

Maryam has been part of numerous exhibitions, festivals, and workshops in Florence, Paris, Florida, Massachusetts (Boston), and Texas. She is the recipient of the Florida State University Scholarship Award (2019), the Andy McLachlin Memorial Award (2021–2022) for exceptional artistic achievement, the Mary Ola Miller Reynolds Award (2021) for contributions to studio art, multiple Artistic Fund Awards (2019–2022), the Harry W. Bass Jr. Graduate Research and Travel Award (2023 and 2024), and the Robert Plant Armstrong Endowed Scholarship Fund in two following years 2024 and 2025.

She was also the Florida State University’s nominee for the Dedalus Foundation Fellowship in 2022. Maryam participated in and curated several exhibitions at prominent galleries in Tehran, including Hoor, Shirin, Arya, and Elahe. Her book Painting in Video Art (in Persian) was published in 2012.
Takalou’s work has been featured in SIX Magazine (2021), VOA (2023), Dallas News (2023), Head Topics (2023), and more. Currently, she is pursuing her Ph.D. in Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Texas at Dallas, where she teaches courses on visual arts.