Working in oil, pastel and graphite, across both canvas and paper, Iranian-American Nasim Hantehzadeh (b. 1988, Stillwater, Oklahoma) brings together freewheeling figurative elements in vibrant and arresting compositions that allude to a range of references, including Paleolithic cave paintings and indigenous art from Mexico, Islamic architecture and ancient Persian rug patterns. Hantehzadeh’s work often reflects their particular interest in Mayan and pre-Islamic art and artefacts, occasioned by evidence of matriarchal and gender-fluid practices that existed in these cultures prior to European colonisation. Embellished orifices and sexual organs populate Hantehzadeh’s work, transfigured from the corporeal to the otherworldly in an earthy palette that complements their biomorphic and abstract forms.
Hantehzadeh’s work draws on both personal and collective memory, with particular focus on liminal states of being. The artist returned to the United States – their country of birth – after being raised in Iran until early adulthood, and their deeply personal works reflect this cultural duality in the hybrid forms that occupy their paintings and drawings. Hantehzadeh creates moving narratives examining the shifting spaces that coalesce around identity, personhood, sexuality and race, evoking a world in which categories are deliberately in flux and undefined. They eschew dogmatic binaries in favour of a more nuanced approach to gender.