Orkideh Torabi (b. 1979, Tehran, Iran) earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016 and her MA and BFA from The University of Art in Tehran. In 2021 Torabi exhibited a mural as part of the Atrium Project at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Chicago. Torabi's solo exhibitions include Richard Heller, Los Angeles; Western Exhibitions, Chicago and Half Gallery, New York. Group exhibitions include Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles; Fredericks & Freiser, New York and Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, amongst others. Her work has been written about in the Los Angeles Times, Juxtapoz, Hyperallergic, and Chicago Reader Magazine, and she was a top nominee for Galerie Magazine's "Emerging Artist Award" in 2019. Her work is in the collections of The Smart Museum in Chicago, the Hall Art Foundation in Vermont, the CC Foundation in Shanghai, The Zuzeum in Latvia, The Progressive Art Collection, and The Microsoft Art Collection in Redmond, WA. Torabi lives and works in New York.
In her vibrant and seemingly whimsical paintings, Torabi delves into the absurdity of the human condition. She portrays men from a female perspective, offering a deliberately cartoonish depiction instead of the prevailing image of masculinity, thereby challenging traditional gender roles in art as well as in the patriarchal world we inhabit. Narrative is a central element in her works, and each piece, inspired by a story rooted in her memories and experiences, explores her internal struggles against the external world.