News

Sanam Khatibi opening soon in Paris

Arte por Excel… 04-04-2025

Mendes Wood DM is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Paris by artist Sanam Khatibi.

Sanam Khatibi’s work conjures first and foremost an art of paradox, where domination and submission, control and release are fervently intertwined. Here power, violence and sensuality blend and blur into each other, weaving together tales of confrontation between human and animal, instinct and reason, cruelty and desire. At the core of her artistic practice is an exploration of power dynamics and of the tension between triumph and failure. Her attraction for what terrifies her manifests on the surface of her canvases in the form of the small snakes that punctuate many of her works – creatures that inspire both fascination and phobia in her. Khatibi’s inclination for paradox is also embedded in her aesthetics, and she plays with a visual tempo that is both unsettling and hypnotic, where fluid compositions and stark contrasts create a fluctuating rhythm between tension and lightness. The animal and human figures she depicts are often caught in metamorphosis and reinforce that dynamic, lending an organic, almost visceral cadence to her works. Lastly, Sanam Khatibi’s canvases are composed with a skilful interplay between the representation of a vast natural landscape, embracing us with its branches, and the presence of minuscule objects nestled within it – small porcelain figurines, ivory skulls, teeth, insects, etc.

– words by Martha Kirszenbaum

Coming Soon:

Sanam Khatibi: Everything I Don't Remember

published by Rizzoli

The first international monograph on artist Sanam Khatibi with essay contributions by Lauren Elkin, Annabelle Ténèze, and a conversation with Katy Hessel