Niki Zarrabi is a second-generation Iranian American, mixed-media artist from Atlanta, Georgia. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a Concentration in Drawing and Painting from Georgia State University in 2014. Her work ranges from painting and installation to large-scale mural work. Zarrabi explores the complex relationship between spirituality and the science of human existence. She uses art to study the structure of our universe to understand its sustenance. By recreating the delicate infrastructures of biology in her layered pieces, Zarrabi is abstractly interpreting her own perception of our existence.
Her goal is to provide her audience with an alternate appreciation for the countless, fragile yet complex elements that come together to give us life. Zarrabi further examines the spiritual connectivity that exists amongst all life forms concurrently in her series of botanical paintings, titled 'Femme Petale'. These surrealist paintings push the idea of reincarnation as represented by flowers, seeing as plants continually live and die. The floral arrangements are illustrated as "melting" to represent a return to the earth while the flowers represent life itself. These paintings strive to find beauty and comfort in the inevitability of death. 'Femme Petale: Portraits' additionally delves into topics of fertility and Mother Nature by subtly alluding to feminine power and matriarchy. Zarrabi's portraits exemplify conditioned, cultural understandings of the female role in society.
