Sanam Khatibi, 1979
Sanam Khatibi (b. 1979, Tehran) is a multidisciplinary visual artist who lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. Khatibi is best known for her enthralling, Watteau-esque paintings of men and women frolicking in primal, Edenic landscapes. Raised in Copenhagen, London and Brussels, Khatibi’s work is informed by non-Western and Western old masters alike, particularly the Dutch painter Hieronyous Bosch’s imaginative hellscapes. Like Bosch, Khatibi is interested in exposing the fears and desires at the core of human nature, featuring figures drained of colour whom she casts in timelessly exotic settings, consciously stripped of racial, cultural or national references. Khatibi also borrows from Flemish and Bayeux tapestries, Pre-Colombian and Etruscan art and Renaissance paintings. Recent solo exhibitions include the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2020); Kunsthal, Ghent, (2020); An hour before the Devil fell at P.P.O.W., New York (2019); The Murders of the Green River at Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels (2019); Wild Mink at Artlead Salon at Brussels (2018) and No Church in the wild at The Cabin LA, Los Angeles. Khatibi has starred in numerous group exhibitions, including Tears of Eros at Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2020); Some Trees at Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles; Terres de Femmes at Praz-Delavallade, Paris (2018) and Quel amour !?, MAC, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille.
Sanam Khatibi (b. 1979, Tehran) is a multidisciplinary visual artist who lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. Khatibi is best known for her enthralling, Watteau-esque paintings of men and women frolicking in primal, Edenic landscapes. Raised in Copenhagen, London and Brussels, Khatibi’s work is informed by non-Western and Western old masters alike, particularly the Dutch painter Hieronyous Bosch’s imaginative hellscapes. Like Bosch, Khatibi is interested in exposing the fears and desires at the core of human nature, featuring figures drained of colour whom she casts in timelessly exotic settings, consciously stripped of racial, cultural or national references. Khatibi also borrows from Flemish and Bayeux tapestries, Pre-Colombian and Etruscan art and Renaissance paintings. Recent solo exhibitions include the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2020); Kunsthal, Ghent, (2020); An hour before the Devil fell at P.P.O.W., New York (2019); The Murders of the Green River at Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels (2019); Wild Mink at Artlead Salon at Brussels (2018) and No Church in the wild at The Cabin LA, Los Angeles. Khatibi has starred in numerous group exhibitions, including Tears of Eros at Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2020); Some Trees at Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles; Terres de Femmes at Praz-Delavallade, Paris (2018) and Quel amour !?, MAC, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille.
Artworks
Underneath the Southern Skies, 2019, Oil, pastel and pencil on panel
