Leili Arai Tavallaei is an interdisciplinary artist, independent curator, and cultural organizer based in Dallas, TX. Working primarily in print, video, & bricollage, Tavallaei’s work weaves intergenerational stories and personal ritual, confronting identity and dissolving memory in today’s world. Tavallaei channels her longing into preservation, creating contemplative works teaming with immigrant clutter, family heirlooms, and personal anecdotes. 

“We are all living, on some level, in an in-between. There’s something ethereal, uncomfortable, beautiful about that grey space—that in-between-ness—that is so essential, I think, to my everyday life.”

— Leili Arai Tavallaei.

Tavallaei is on the Board of the Dallas Asian American Art Collective, programming events and exhibitions to connect & cultivate the Asian American creative community in Dallas. She is also an Artist in Residence with the Museum of Asian Texans in partnership with the Dallas Asian American Historical Society. She is a 2025 recipient of the Anne Giles Kimbrough Fund from the Dallas Museum of Art. Her debut solo show, Shotor 〇 Morghe, was recognized in Glasstire’s Top 5. She has been exhibited in galleries and film festivals across the United States, most notably at the Scout Art Fair in Baltimore’s War Memorial Building, with Erin Cluley Gallery in Dallas, at Lawndale Art Center in Houston, with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center outside DC, and the Downtown Independent Theater in LA. She received a BFA in Animation with a Minor in Printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and attended Osaka Gakuin University (OGU) in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.

Tavallaei currently lives and works in Dallas, TX surrounded by her growing collection of houseplants and sunshine.

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