(b. 1981)
Born in Iran in 1981, Tala Madani graduated from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon in 2004 with a bachelor of arts degree in Political Science and Visual Arts. In 2006, she graduated from Yale University School of Art in New Haven, Connecticut with an Master of Fine Arts in Painting. She is known for her paintings, drawings and stop-motion animations whose recurrent motifs include men, often made vulnerable, which gives the effect of reversing the conventionally objectified female body in painting. Madani's work was included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. Awards have included Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation (2013), Catherine Doctorow Prize for Contemporary Painting (2013), the De Volkskrant Art Award (2012), Pinchuk Art Centre (2012), the Van den Berch van Heemstede Stichting Fellowship (2008), and the Kees Verwey Fellowship (2007).