“Middle Eastern Influences: The Art of Liz Whitney Quisgard and Fariba Abedin” opens at the Museum of Geometric and MADI Art with a Reception at 6:30 on Friday, October 9.  The show will continue at the Museum at 3109 Carlisle St. until January 8, 2016.  Both artists will give talks about their art, Liz on Thursday, October 15,  and Fariba at the closing of the exhibit.

Inspired by Moorish architecture and Byzantine mosaics, New York artist Liz Quisgard creates a Thousand  and One Nights vision though embroidered, abstract  tapestries as well as columns.  The artist refers to her work in fiber as “pseudo pointillism” that combines the discipline of creating painstaking patterns and heavily structured designs with bright, jewel-like colors.  Her work does not attempt to communicate anything beyond visual delight:  “My goal is to surprise and engage the mind by seducing the eye.  The visual arts are exactly that:  visual.  No meanings, No preachments. No symbols.”  Liz has exhibited at the Chicago Art Institute, the Cocoran Gallery, and the Baltimore Museum of Art as well as numerous galleries and other museums nationwide.

Iranian born Fariba Abedin emphasizes an exploration of color using geometric abstraction as a foundation.  Her carefully selected tints, shades and tones create the illusion of volume, space, vibration, and transparency.  She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Massachusetts College of Art, and for the last thirty years has lived in Houston.  She was a finalist in the Hunting Art Prize Competition.   Inspired by the ideas of the poet Mawlana Rumi,  she has exhibited her art accompanied by Persian music and the poetry of Rumi , who advocates unlimited tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and awareness through love.