Opening on 24th September 2021
On view until 8th October 2021

Shaqayeq Ahmadian captures life through a playful, exhilarating lens. Guided by her own sense of perception, she paints with immediacy and truthfulness. The immersive effect puts viewers squarely in the artist’s world. Her different layers of experience are eccentric and emerge through choices of colors and form. She engages with the past and present and offers a possible future.
In new series of works, the artist embraces nature and creates her own mother nature, the colorful, strong goddess with hair like rays of sunshine; with her many wounds visible in her bulky body, she gathers the tears in her palms and offers them back to nature. The artist’s unconsciousness has driven her to form the body and soul of her own unique goddess.
In her vista of a broad sweeping view of a seaside leisure place, mothers and children are playfully depicted, an image that is forbidden in our land or at least is not often seen. A wishful scenery where the valiant birds fearlessly interact with humans. The artist covers up her childhood fear of the sea, finds the rush of waves soothing, becomes friends with mermaids, and is no longer afraid of the depth of the sea. The figures stare at the viewer, confident and strong. The birds, always a metaphor for freedom, are ever present in the works. There is a fundamental interplay between objects and paintings, two and three dimensions, where her animated figures appear to have stepped out of canvases.
The artist embraces life, ignores her fears, and surpasses the limitations and difficulties of life in her homeland. Her unrelenting strive to better herself and to pass on the joy of discovery to those around her is exemplary. It is as if she holds her own mantle of light, grins at the world and its complexities, and purposely shares her exhilarating optimism. She refuses to adhere to the norms of society and continues to craft her own path. Her honest approach to life and her art remain pure and striking.
Nazila Noebashari