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Paasha Motamedi

Paasha Motamedi

Oil stick and acrylic on a machine-made Persian-style rug, the retail label left in place — Paasha Motamedi
Painting Oil stick and acrylic on a machine-made rug all 41 works →
From A Dying Tradition — photograph by Paasha Motamedi
Photography →
Paasha Motamedi handing a freshly typed poem across a garden table, a Smith-Corona typewriter in front of him
Typewriter poetry booking →
los angeles paasha.motamedi@gmail.com @paashamotamedi

Art

His multidisciplinary practice—shaped by poetry, cooking, music, and visual arts—took a decisive turn after embracing sobriety in 2015.

Film

← film

Opa, Last Days

documentary short · 2026 · 15:45

The final two days of the artist's grandfather's life. Opa dies before the film ends.

The film is not screening online. Programmers and festivals are welcome to request a link.

Request a screener

Credits

director, producer, cinematographer, editor Paasha Motamedi
Press & programmers — screening inquiries

Slow Motion

After 2015, the practice began again here — the camera slowed down first.

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Watch on Vimeo ↗
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Ten Shorts

in production

A series of ten short films, in production. Individual films will be posted here as they are finished.

Inquire about the series

Painting

Oil stick, acrylic, and unconventional materials — saffron, black dried lime, pomegranate, sabzi, sand, and fire — applied directly to mass-produced Persian-style rugs. Repurposed as both medium and critique, the rugs interrogate the consumer fetishization of orientalized objects while evoking migration, displacement, and third-culture hybridity.

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From the rug paintings — mixed media on a machine-made Persian-style rug.
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Painting — the full sequence

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Photography

Personal reportage on diaspora, belonging, and autochthony — grown out of street photography.

Portrait work is shown under Editorial & Portraits.
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Poetry

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Five 30ml bottles of the artist's perfume, filled with a deep yellow oil, hand-labelled "paasha joon pici" with "hi" written over the caps

Scent

Persian cuisine in an "Under The Tuscan Sun" kitchen; the Food Network is blasting Emeril Live, as my mom teaches me about the Iranian palette where, here, butter and fenugreek are trellised by pink and black peppercorn as a treacly backbone is endowed by oud and ambergris. The room spins. Gourmand would be the lazy way to describe this savory, unctuous tandem of memory and opulence.

The perfumes are composed to evoke the dishes of that kitchen — gheimeh and beef rendang among them — and they accompany the rug paintings as an invisible part of the work.

Pictured: paasha joon pici, 30 ml, hand-filled and hand-labelled.
More will be revealed
Inquire

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Writing

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Features, artist profiles, interviews, and criticism, mostly about people who make things in Los Angeles. The poems have their own room.

Selected pieces

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In print

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Longer work, fiction and a feature screenplay, is in development.

Commissions and pitches welcome. commission a piece Published in {{ pubWriting }}

Curation

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Exhibitions organized

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exhibition page →

Residencies

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Have a room and an idea? propose a show exhibitions as an artist, in the CV →

Commercial Services

Editorial portrait — photograph by Paasha Motamedi

Editorial & Portraits

Editorial and portrait photography on assignment, for publications and for people.

view photographs
Artwork documentation example — a painting photographed square to the frame

Artwork Documentation

Photographic documentation of paintings and works on paper, for artists, galleries, and estates.

the service

Typewriter Poetry

Live poems typed to order for holiday parties, brand activations, weddings, and conferences. Each guest leaves with the only copy.

how it works

Writing

Essays and interviews, alongside the poetry. Commissions considered.

Photography published in The New York Times · Los Angeles Times · Hyperallergic
For commissions and bookings — paasha.motamedi@gmail.com

Editorial & Portraits

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Photography published in The New York Times · Los Angeles Times · Hyperallergic
Commission an assignment — paasha.motamedi@gmail.com

Typewriter poet, Los Angeles Live poems, typed to order.

A guest sits down across from me and offers a name, a worry, a joke, or nothing at all. A few minutes later they stand up holding the only copy of a poem that did not exist before they sat down. Holiday parties, brand activations, weddings, conferences; eleven years at the typewriter.

Paasha Motamedi in a burgundy velvet jacket handing a freshly typed poem across a garden table, a Smith-Corona typewriter in front of him

The night, in order

  1. 1

    Setup

    I arrive early with a manual typewriter and a stack of card stock, and take the seat you have set for me.

  2. 2

    A guest sits down

    I ask what the poem should be about. Most people say a person. Some say the open bar. Either works.

  3. 3

    Three to six minutes of typing

    People gather and read over shoulders. A line forms, and the line is part of the evening.

  4. 4

    They leave with the only copy

    No carbon, no photo unless they take one. The usual reaction is happy tears.

ten to twenty poems an hour, depending on how long we talk. i write longer than most.

Four from the stack

Typed on a Smith-Corona Silent for guests who gave me a name and a minute. First names only. Each card opens to its transcription.

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    Read the poem
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Where I write

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to name a few

Who I have written for

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Also on offer

A second poet

For large rooms I bring another typewriter poet I trust, with their own machine, so nobody waits long. Two tables, two lines, twice the poems.

Paasha Motamedi and a second typewriter poet at two typewriters on a hotel rooftop
One week's notice

A custom stamp

Your event name, date, or logo stamped on every card before it leaves the table. The poem is the keepsake; the stamp says where it came from.

A typed poem card on the typewriter, for kelly and kevin

What I need from you

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Paasha Motamedi in a cream hat and brown tweed behind a chrome typewriter, a black case lettered Free Haiku beside him
Paasha Motamedi in a cream fedora in an orange velvet banquette, chin on his hand, a chrome typewriter on the table

The practice

Eleven years at the typewriter

I can usually tell what someone needs before they give me a topic.

People have tattooed these poems on their bodies and read them aloud as wedding vows. One of them went to space.

The usual reaction is happy tears.

Almost always overdressed

Paasha Motamedi in a blue velvet jacket and polka dot bow tie typing by candlelight
Paasha Motamedi in a yellow linen jacket typing beside a second poet at a blue typewriter
Paasha Motamedi reading a typed poem aloud at an outdoor wedding, in a black and white patterned jacket

Questions, answered

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Book a date

Send the date, the city, and a rough head count. I reply within a day with availability and the rate sheet. Two-hour minimum; travel outside Los Angeles quoted up front.

Artwork Documentation

Photographic documentation of paintings and works on paper, for artists, galleries, and estates — the full work square to the frame, plus details at working resolution.

Documentation example — a painting photographed square to the frame, full bleed edge to edge
Documentation example — one of the artist's own rug paintings.
Rates on request.
Book a session

About

The practice

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Paasha Motamedi photographed at night in a leather jacket, in black and white

Curriculum vitae

Biography

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Photography published in

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Writing published in

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Contact

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