Ban Forces Artist to Cancel Trip from Canada for Sister's Show at SF State

San Francisco Chronicle -- Mani Mazinani, a native of Iran who lives in Canada, had planned on traveling to San Francisco to help his sister, the fellow artist Sanaz Mazinani, install two forthcoming exhibitions in the city. Because of the ban, Mani Mazinani will not make the trip. “My brother has a 2-year-old, so they don’t want to come all the way here to be detained for 12 hours and then sent back,” Sanaz Mazinani told Canadian Art magazine. Matt Itelson of the College of Liberal & Creative Arts at San Francisco State University said Mazinani was to have collaborated with his sister, who lives in San Francisco, on two shows: one at SF State (“Mashrabiya: The Art of Looking Back,” February 18 – March 16), and the other at SF Camerawork (February 16 – April 22). “In today’s political divide full of vicious anti-Muslim rhetoric, the brilliant art provides an opportunity to look, reflect and respond,” said Professor Mark Johnson, exhibit co-curator and director of SF State’s Fine Arts Gallery.