And She Made the Moon a Light in Their Midst

Bahareh Khoshooee and Naz Orakzay

curated by Maryam Ghoreishi

Opening Reception: Thursday, Oct 16th, 6 – 8pm

On view: Friday, October 17th, 2025 — Sunday, January, 9th, 2026
Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday, 2 – 6pm

About the artists:

Bahareh Khoshooee is a multidisciplinary artist, feminist activist, educator, and the co-founder of two collectives –Blockbusters (an international group of New Media artists), and [Redacted] (a network of feminist artists, activists, and technologists). Born in Tehran, Iran, Khoshooee uses time-based strategies in presenting work that fuses 3D environments, video projection mapping, sculpture, performance, and sound. Her practice explores the complex dualities of technology: its oppressive role in surveilling, documenting, and criminalizing BIPOC bodies, and its radical potential for futurity and alternative solidarities. Her work unearths how technology mediates the intimate and collective experiences of grief, violence, and memory, reclaiming these spaces as arenas for liberation, and reimagined futures.
Khoshooee is the recipient of Eyebeam’s Democracy Machine Fellowship and a Skowhegan alumna. She has presented her solo installations at the Dorothy Center for The Arts, Baxter St CCNY, The Elizabeth Foundation for The Arts,The Orlando Museum of Art,and NADA MIAMI 2018 among others. Khoshooee has been included in various group exhibitions including the Honor Fraser Gallery, Latinx Project, Southern Exposure, Museum of Photography Stockholm, and the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg. Her work has been featured in The Huffington Post, The Guardian, Artnet News, The Metro, and The Creators Project. 
baharehkhoshooee.com

Naz Orakzay is a photographer, graphic designer and writer. She received her bachelor in Photography from Kabul University. After graduation, she started working as a lecturer at the Fine Arts Faculty. Currently, she teaches English Literature at Women Online University in Afghanistan.
IG: @naaz.orakzay

About the curator:

Maryam Ghoreishi is an independent artist, curator, and arts administrator based in Brooklyn. Most recently Ghoreishi curated In-between, at The Bridge and Tunnel Gallery, New York, 2023. Other curated shows include The Pleasure of Futile Cycles, by Yasi Alipour, at Twelve Gates Arts, Philadelphia, 2022, Out of Sight, Beyond Touch, at the Center for Book Arts, New York, 2021, Who Really Cares, Cathouse Proper, New York, 2019. She also co-curated Pop-up Exhibitions as part of FIELD MEETING Take 6: Thinking Collections, at Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, 2019, and MAPPING OUT A FIELD, Zanbeel Art, Los Angeles, 2020. Her exhibitions were featured in Special Week of Shows-within-a-Show on Art at a Time Like This and Hyperallergic. Ghoreishi has been collaborating with Asia Contemporary Art Forum (ACAF), working with Afghan artists through ACAF’s Talking Peers program, Arts for Afghanistan since December 2023. She received her B.F.A and M.F.A in Iran and her M.A in Visual Arts Administration from New York University.
maryamghoreishi.com

Acknowledgments

Penumbra's Exhibition Space is supported in part by the Joy of Giving Something.