Iran-born, Brussels-based artist Sanam Khatibi crafts oil and pencil works that continue a Renaissance-era visual dialogue, yet exploring gender dynamics and dominance through her singular voice. Her figures are described as “ambiguous with their relationship to power, violence, sensuality and each other.”
“Sanam Khatibi’s works deal with animality, and our primal impulses and the core of her practice interrogates our relationship to power structures, specifically the duality of triumph and failure,” a statement says. “The recurrent themes that often feature in her work question our relationship with excess, loss of control, bestiality, the male-female dynamics, domination and submission. She is also interested in the thin line that exists between fear and desire, and how closely they are interrelated.”
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The artist’s works have been shown in Belgium, Marsielle, Los Angeles, Vienna, and beyond. See more of her works below.
