User:Serenaviolaart/sandbox

Sanam Khatibi (born 1979 in Tehran, Iran) is an emerging artist living and working out of Brussels, Belgium. She had to leave her home country of Iran due to violence and war. Her mediums of choice include oil painting, pastels, embroidery, and ceramics. She received a Masters of Art degree from Central Saint Martins in London, UK. Khatibi has exhibited nationally and internationally, with solo shows at galleries both in the US and Europe.

Notable concepts and ideas
Khatibi's artwork has always had themes of animality and plays with the fine line between fear and desire. She is inspired by tapestries and old masters like Bosch, Lucas Cranach, Henry Dager and Frida Kahlo. Like these artists, her artwork shows exotic and colorful scenery that subtly hints at violence, pain and chaos. Khatibi has a personal fear of snakes, so she includes them in her work to recognize and bring to surface her darkest fears. She utilizes traditional mediums, that have previously been stigmatized as being purely feminine or crafty, to make intriguing and philosophical art. She is interested in representing the inevitable loss of control and human instincts. She focuses on what happens in situations where control is lost. Although her paintings do comment on these complicated and ambiguous layers of interpersonal relationships, she also wants the viewer to be able to interpret her work however they please.

Her most recent work is centered around a group of female figures and their relationship to power. These women are depicted as dominate predators often getting into mischief and having to balance impulsivity and playfulness. There are hints of natural darkness and mysticism in her work.

According to Waterside Contemporary gallery, her early work deals more with trauma and loss. They stated, "Khatibi's drawings and paintings are a disquieting reminder of the afflictions that are imposed through loss. Drawing on the pervasive anxiety of natural disasters, Khatibi's works emanate a visceral anguish, which are marked by our instinctive and primal fears. The intricate nature of Khatibi’s works implies an intimate relationship with her subjects, representing an antithesis to the apathetic distance that is projected by the mediated image."

Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions Group Exhibitions
 * 2017 Rivers in your mouth, rodolphe janssen, Brussels, Belgium
 * 2017 With tendresse and longing, Billboard Series #6: Art in Public Space, Artlead, Gent, Belgium
 * 2017 No Church in the wild, The Cabin LA, Los Angeles CA, USA
 * 2016 Le jardin décomposé, Super Dakota, Brussels, Belgium
 * 2016 The hollow in the ferns, NICC Vitrine, Brussels, Belgium
 * 2015 Ask me nicely, trampoline, Antwerp, Belgium
 * 2014 Séduire ou crever de faim, Island, Brussels, Belgium
 * 2018 Quel amour !?, MAC, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille, France (upcoming)


 * 2017 Various Samll Fires, Los Angeles, CA USA
 * 2017 Dalonaz, Royal, Brussels, Belgium
 * 2016 Summer in the City, Christine König Gallery, Vienna, Austria
 * 2016 Biennial of Painting, Museum of Deinze, Deinze, Belgium
 * 2016 Balls & Glory, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
 * 2015 Louise186, Brussels Art Days, Brussels, Belgium
 * 2015 Me, Myself and I, trampoline, Antwerp, Belgium
 * 2015 Palourdes cuites, Christopher Crescent, Brussels, Belgium
 * 2015 Every day I’m..., Harlan Levey, Brussels, Belgium
 * 2014 The Penthouse Art Event, Harlan Levey Projects, Bloom Hotel, Brussels, Belgium
 * 2013 Thalie Art Project (curated by Emmanuel Lambion and Nathalie Guiot), Brussels, Belgium
 * 2012 The Antagonist, Waterside Contemporary, London, UK
 * 2011 WHAT?, Mimmo Scognamiglio Artecontemporanea, Milan, Italy
 * 2011 400 Women, Canongate Venture, Edinburgh, Ireland
 * 2010 Identity Theft (curated by James Putnam), Mimmo Scognamiglio Arte contemporanea, Milan, Italy
 * 2010 400 Women, Shoreditch Town Hall Basement, London, UK
 * 2009 Drawn In, Contemporary Drawing Exhibition, Sidcot Arts Centre, North Somerset, UK
 * 2009 Catch My Drift, Bargehouse, oxo Tower, London, UK
 * 2008 WANTED, The Rag Factory, Brick Lane, London, UK