Peppa is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work joins experimental video, sculpture, writing, herbalism, pedagogy, and community engagement. Her art offers a psychiatric survivor’s lens on medical history and healing practices. Honoring her multi-cultural heritage, Iranian diasporic experience, and family history, her work activates historical research and personal narrative to challenge frameworks of institutional care, especially focusing on the mental health industry. She currently works as an art teacher and curriculum developer and is the director and founder of After School Art Space, a free after school art program serving K-12. Selected exhibitions include the Boston Women’s Film Festival, Mosiac Art Collective (Manchester, NH), Schafer Gallery (San Francisco, CA), ArtsWorcester (Worcester, MA), The Sprinkler Factory (Worcester, MA), Todd Art Gallery (Murfreeboro, Tennessee), Out of the Blue Too Gallery (Cambridge, MA), and the Museo Fisiocritici (Siena, Italy). She has presented her art work, research, and teaching practice at the Psychology and the Arts Conference (2022, 2018) and the Arts in Society International conference (2019).
AWARDS/RESIDENCIES
MASS MoCA Assets 4 Artists Building Capacity Grant. 2024.
AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowship nominee. 2024.
Creatives Rebuild NY Grant. 2022.
AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowship nominee. 2022.
Playground Playgroup, Brooklyn, NY. 2021.
Emerging Scholar Award. Arts in Society Conference. 2021.
Cranbrook Academy of Art Scholarship. 2019-2021.
Vivientes Artist Internship and Community Project, Dos Mangas, Manglaralto, Ecuador. January 2016.
M.A.T. Full Scholarship. Clark University. 2014.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS & PUBLICATIONS
2024
4 Kings Day Community Event. O.U.R. Resurge Multicultural Community Center, Pittsfield, MA.
2023
Trash to treasure. Mosiac Art Collective, Manchester, NH.
2022
Designing Symbols of Resistance. Printed Matter, New York, NY.
She made her altar red. Exhibizone.
Psychology and the Arts Conference. "Experimental Storytelling and the Manifestations of Memory".
“Iranian Diaspora Spotlight: We are the poppy born from fire— a conversation with artist Pouya Afshar.” Without a Trace, Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies. San Francisco, CA.
“Iranian Diaspora Spotlight: — Spaces of Possibility with Afruz Amighi.” Without a Trace, Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies. San Francisco, CA.
“Iranian Diaspora Spotlight: Art Beyond Aesthetics—the Vision of Morehshin Allahyari.” Without a Trace, Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies. San Francisco, CA.
2021
The stories we tell. Forum Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI.
Graduate Degree Exhibition. Cranbrook Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI.
Untitled/Sculpture Show. Forum Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI.
2020
Boston Women’s Film Festival.
“A Tall Tale.” Khejalat zine.
2019
Capillaries. Herman Keiffer Hospital, Detroit, MI.
Arts in Society Conference, Lisbon, Portugal.
Useless, an art thing. Long Haulway Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
Alumni Show. Dana Hall School, Wellesley, MA.
2018
Salon Ouvert. Schafer Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
Decolonize gender. San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA.
Psychology and the Arts Conference. “RAGE- an experimental video presentation and discussion.” Dubrovnik, Croatia.
2017
Peripheral ARTeries magazine.
MICA GRAD SHOW II. Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
2015
Making Our Mark. The Sprinkler Factory, Worcester, MA.
Out of the Blue Too Gallery. Cambridge, MA.
2014
Alumni Show. Dana Hall School, Wellesley, MA.
North South East West. Todd Art Gallery, Murfsreeboro, TN.
Like it’s 1979. ArtsWorcester, Worcester, MA.
Annual College Show. ArtsWorcester, Annual College Show, Worcester, MA.
Above/Below Ground Project. Museo Fisiocritici, Siena, Italy.
2013
Semblance: transcending apparent connections. Thesis Show, Worcester, MA.
Black Arts Explosion Night. Worcester, MA.
Reimagine, Regenerate, Reinvent. Worcester State University, Worcester, MA.
2012
Essence in Portraiture: A Different Perspective. Clark University, Worcester, MA.
EDUCATION
MFA. Cranbrook Academy of Art. 2021.
MAT. Clark University. 2015.