Omid Tavakoli is a Cleveland-based conceptual artist and curator whose work revolves around themes related to identity, gender, media, land use, protest, and pop culture. The most recent series have explored cultural identity and focused on their African-American and Iranian roots given contemporary cultural contexts in both America and Iran from a feminist perspective.
Tavakoli has exhibited throughout the United States with recent exhibitions being Holding Up The Mirror at The Reinberger Gallery, NewNow 2025 Artist Archives of the Western Reserve @ Tri-C East Campus, 2020 An International Juried Photography Exhibit at SPVA at Southern Miss, Posing the Question at Height Arts, Bearing Witness at Emily Davis Gallery, Fabulism: Meta Fact and Fictions at Worthington Yards, Little Berlin at The Front NOLA, Fin, Fur, Feather at The Valley Art Center, The Peer Show at The Cleveland Print Room, Student Independent Exhibition 69 at the Reinberger Gallery, I Came So Far For Beauty and Recent Alumni Exhibition at The Galleries at Cleveland State University. Curated exhibits include ANIMATOPOÆA: A MOST PECULIAR (POSTMODERN) BESTIARY and Gold at the Sandusky Cultural Center, alongside a series of exhibitions at PopEye Gallery in Cleveland, OH, including The PopEye House at Rooms To Let: CLE in Slavic Village. in 2026, Tavakoli was accepted to A.I.R. Vallauris in France to further his practice in film and alternative methods in photography.
The artist received The Satellite Fund Emergency Relief Grant, Neighborhood Connections Grant, and Collinwood Rising Grant to re-open, design, and maintain the Waterloo Sculpture Garden in Northeast Ohio.
Tavakoli has also been the recipient of numerous juried awards, including an Honorable Mention at the Student Annual at Kent State University, Best in Photography during the 42nd Annual Student Show and an Honorable Mention at the 41st Annual Student Show at Cleveland State University. Likewise, Tavakoli received the Juror’s Award in the 2012 May Show and a Merit Award in the 2014 May Show at Lakeland CC.
After completing undergraduate studies at Cleveland State University, Tavakoli received an art scholarship to complete a year-long post-baccalaureate program at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, OH. He then received a graduate assistantship and earned an MFA in Print Media and Photography from Kent State University in Kent, OH in 2019.
Tavakoli has exhibited throughout the United States with recent exhibitions being Holding Up The Mirror at The Reinberger Gallery, NewNow 2025 Artist Archives of the Western Reserve @ Tri-C East Campus, 2020 An International Juried Photography Exhibit at SPVA at Southern Miss, Posing the Question at Height Arts, Bearing Witness at Emily Davis Gallery, Fabulism: Meta Fact and Fictions at Worthington Yards, Little Berlin at The Front NOLA, Fin, Fur, Feather at The Valley Art Center, The Peer Show at The Cleveland Print Room, Student Independent Exhibition 69 at the Reinberger Gallery, I Came So Far For Beauty and Recent Alumni Exhibition at The Galleries at Cleveland State University. Curated exhibits include ANIMATOPOÆA: A MOST PECULIAR (POSTMODERN) BESTIARY and Gold at the Sandusky Cultural Center, alongside a series of exhibitions at PopEye Gallery in Cleveland, OH, including The PopEye House at Rooms To Let: CLE in Slavic Village. in 2026, Tavakoli was accepted to A.I.R. Vallauris in France to further his practice in film and alternative methods in photography.
The artist received The Satellite Fund Emergency Relief Grant, Neighborhood Connections Grant, and Collinwood Rising Grant to re-open, design, and maintain the Waterloo Sculpture Garden in Northeast Ohio.
Tavakoli has also been the recipient of numerous juried awards, including an Honorable Mention at the Student Annual at Kent State University, Best in Photography during the 42nd Annual Student Show and an Honorable Mention at the 41st Annual Student Show at Cleveland State University. Likewise, Tavakoli received the Juror’s Award in the 2012 May Show and a Merit Award in the 2014 May Show at Lakeland CC.
After completing undergraduate studies at Cleveland State University, Tavakoli received an art scholarship to complete a year-long post-baccalaureate program at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, OH. He then received a graduate assistantship and earned an MFA in Print Media and Photography from Kent State University in Kent, OH in 2019.