Leili Arai Tavallaei is an interdisciplinary artist, independent curator, and community organizer with Persian-Japanese-Texan roots based in Dallas, TX. Her work is both archive and diary, exploring how memory shifts between nostalgia and reality. She translate family photographs, immigrant clutter, and childhood memories of Texas through video installation, print media, and mixed media paintings. Ultimately her artwork is for people stuck between nostalgia and reality who need space to navigate confusion, cherish collective memory, and feel connected for future generations.

“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 has been shown in galleries, museums, and film festivals across the United States. Her debut solo show, Shotor 〇 Morghe, was recognized in Glasstire’s Top 5 in 2025. She has completed artist residencies with Islam & Print in Baltimore, The Cedars Union in Dallas, and the Museum of Asian Texans and is a 2025 recipient of the Anne Giles Kimbrough Fund from the Dallas Museum of Art. Tavallaei holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art.  

Curating and community organizing are an extension of Tavallaei’s fine arts practice. She curates to preserve, cherish, and highlight underrepresented stories and their influence in the contemporary. She organizes to catalyse change, bridge gaps, and celebrate culture so communities have the support they need to thrive. Without strong communities, society falters. Tavallaei has programmed events alongside the Dallas Asian American Art Collective as an active Board Member, facilitated communities of care with Mixed Japanese American Healing Circles, an offshoot group from Tsuru for Solidarity, and taught workshops at local businesses, universities, and museums. At present, she is the Programs Coordinator at Asian Mental Health Collective working to foster healing, resilience, and connection within her community on a broader scale. Her leadership, curatorial work, and community activism has been recognized by CBS Texas, NBC DFW, KERA, and The Dallas Morning News.

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

Link to Full CV