Chambre d'Amis III, Dallas x Sheida Soleimani

The third edition of "Chambre d'Amis: Dallas features a talk between Sheida Soleimani and DJ Hellerman, the Deputy Director & Senior Curator of The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (moCa) who will explore  the entanglements of image-making, environmental grief, and the aesthetics of resistance- moving fluidly across topics from wildlife rehabilitation to the politics of visibility and care.

 

Please contact us for more information. 

  • ABOUT Sheida Soleimani

    ABOUT Sheida Soleimani

    Sheida Soleimani (b. 1990) lives and works in Providence, United States. 

     

    Sheida Soleimani is an artist, educator, and licensed wildlife rehabilitator whose work examines power, environmental crisis, queerness, migration, and care. The daughter of political refugees who escaped Iran in the early 1980s, Soleimani draws on archival materials, props, and sculptural elements to create visually lush, politically incisive tableaux. She works across various mediums, investigating themes such as oil politics and human rights abuses, confronting the systems of violence linking the SWANA region and the United States, unraveling their implications in American culture. 

     

    Though her images are dreamlike, they are grounded in lived experience: her parents frequently appear as subjects, in compositions made from elements of their (sometimes harrowing) tales. Increasingly, wildlife enters the frame – injured and orphaned birds, with their own quiet stories of migration and survival. Before the lens, these animals encapsulate Soleimani's multifaceted practice: care as art, storytelling as resistance. 

     

    Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in institutions such as the International Center for Photography - ICP (New York, US), the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (US), Photoforum Pasquart (Biel, CH), Providence College Galleries (US), Castello San Basilio (Basilicata, IT), Southern Utah Museum of Art (Cedar City, US), CUE Art Foundation (New York, US), Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati, US), Atlanta Contemporary (US), and MoMA PS1 (New York, US), to name a few. Soleimani has participated in group exhibitions in institutions such as the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University (Waltham, US), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts - PAFA (Philadelphia, US), the deCordova New England Biennial (Lincoln, US), the South London Gallery (UK), The Living Art Museum (Reykjavik, IS), and many others.

     

    Soleimani’s work is held in permanent collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, US), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (US), the Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts - PAFA (Philadelphia, US), MIT List Visual Arts Center (Cambridge, US), Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, US), and KADIST (Paris, FR). Her work has been recognized internationally in both exhibitions and publications such as Artforum, Frieze, The New York Times, Financial Times, Art in America, Interview Magazine, and many others. Alongside her artistic practice, Soleimani is also an Associate Professor of Studio Art at Brandeis University. In 2018, she founded Congress of the Birds, (originally) a home-based clinic in Providence, Rhode Island, where she provides care for wild birds. 

     

    In 2025, Soleimani won the MAST Photography Grant on Industry and Work for her new series, Flyways.

  • BIO

    Soleimani’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in institutions such as the International Center for Photography - ICP (New York, US), the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (US), Photoforum Pasquart (Biel, CH), Providence College Galleries (US), Castello San Basilio (Basilicata, IT), Southern Utah Museum of Art (Cedar City, US), CUE Art Foundation (New York, US), Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati, US), Atlanta Contemporary (US), and MoMA PS1 (New York, US), to name a few. Soleimani has participated in group exhibitions in institutions such as the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University (Waltham, US), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts - PAFA (Philadelphia, US), the deCordova New England Biennial (Lincoln, US), the South London Gallery (UK), The Living Art Museum (Reykjavik, IS), and many others.

     

    Soleimani’s work is held in permanent collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, US), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (US), the Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts - PAFA (Philadelphia, US), MIT List Visual Arts Center (Cambridge, US), Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, US), and KADIST (Paris, FR). Her work has been recognized internationally in both exhibitions and publications such as Artforum, Frieze, The New York Times, Financial Times, Art in America, Interview Magazine, and many others. Alongside her artistic practice, Soleimani is also an Associate Professor of Studio Art at Brandeis University and a federally licensed wildlife rehabilitator.

     

    In 2025, Soleimani won the MAST Photography Grant on Industry and Work for her new series, Flyways.

  • ABOUT DJ Hellerman

    ABOUT DJ Hellerman

    DJ Hellerman is a dynamic curator and arts leader whose practice centers on collaboration, experimentation, and supporting artist-led processes. He currently serves as Deputy Director and Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (moCa), where he helps shape the institution's evolving curatorial vision. Previously, Hellerman was Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, where he organized poetic, experimental exhibitions grounded in creative risk and community engagement. His curatorial interests span art, technology, spirituality, and early video practice, with a focus on place-sensitive art making and alternative museum models. Earlier in his career, he held curatorial roles at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, and Burlington City Arts in Vermont, establishing a reputation for thoughtful, interdisciplinary programming.

     

    He has curated numerous influential exhibitions, including Yoko Ono: Remembering the Future, Pale In Comparison by Doreen Lynette Garner, and A Place for the Affections (co-curated with Harlan Levey), as well as projects featuring artists such as Henry Taylor, Jayson Musson, and Edie Fake.