Maryam Bayat: 'Unrolling Paradise'

"Unrolling Paradise" explores the Persian garden as a living design tradition carried through textiles, memory, and everyday objects. Interdisciplinary artist Maryam Bayat reinterprets centuries-old carpet aesthetics through sculptural works that merge traditional Persian rugs with contemporary form and function.

Raised in Tehran in a family of rug producers and now based in North County San Diego, Bayat draws from inherited craft to create installations that reflect on place, belonging, and cultural continuity. Her woven sculptures—appearing as furniture, abstract trees, and domestic interiors—extend the symbolism of the garden into three-dimensional space, linking ideas of sanctuary to personal and collective memory.

This exhibition is curated by Sadry Hedayat and organized in collaboration with Persian Place.

The exhibition opens alongside Nowruz – Persian New Year on March 14, 2026, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Maryam Bayat is an interdisciplinary artist working across painting, sculpture, and functional art. Using repurposed furniture, Persian rugs, and architectural forms, she repositions domestic materials within three-dimensional space, shifting them from utility to structure. Raised in Tehran in a family of rug producers, Bayat draws from inherited craft traditions shaped by repetition, pattern, and labor. Her work examines how cultural knowledge is carried through objects and adapted across generations, connecting ideas of home, belonging, and continuity to lived experience. Bayat lives and works in the United States.

California Center for the Arts Museum on Facebook / Instagram