Sanam Khatibi (born 1979) is an Iranian-born Belgian visual artist. Her work consists of paintings, embroideries, tapestries, and sculptures. Themes of her work relate to humanity's primal instincts and animality, male-female dynamics, balance of power between the sexes, domination and submission, and fear and desire. Her works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the U.S. She lives and works in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Belgium.

Work

Khatibi cites

Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by Culture of Mexico, the country' ...

Hieronymus Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (; ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch people, Dutch painter from Duchy of Brabant, Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, gene ...

, and

Henry Darger Henry Joseph Darger Jr. ( ; April 12, 1892 – April 13, 1973) was an American writer, novelist and artist who worked as a hospital janitor, custodian in Chicago, Illinois. He has become famous for his posthumously recovered 15,145-page manuscri ...

as her sources of inspiration. Khatibi's paintings often resemble

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

imagery, with groups of almost transparent nude female figures against backgrounds of pastel-coloured landscapes. The ghost-like women interact with the surrounding wildlife and explore their animal impulses. Her work is seen as putting "a contemporary spin on surrealism and the uncanny." A self-taught artist, Khatibi is described as "guided by an untamed instinct", and "each work seems to be an invitation to a sexual game, tender or brutal, romantic or savage." Khatibi explains, “No matter how much society tries to cover it up, no matter how polite and educated we act, our impulses remain primitive.” The emotional tone of her work is considered benign, despite the underlying themes: "Along with the apparent bestiality and the violence of the depicted scenes, the artist keeps an amused eye on the joyful carnival." Furthermore, "her female subjects are presented as protagonists, not victims. They hunt, tame, or seduce the wild beasts, rather than being ravaged by them." Khatibi says her female figures are "the predators, the dominant figures, who are quite impulsive and playful... often depicted within the same plane as the flora and fauna." A review notes that "the women have an ambiguous relationship with power, violence, sensuality, and one another." Khatibi adds that “I suppose they are all me—and they are all bits and pieces of us all.” Her series, "The Murders of the Green River," exhibited in 2019 at the Rodolphe Janssen gallery in Brussels, examined the crimes of the serial killer

Gary Ridgway Gary Leon Ridgway (born February 18, 1949), known as the Green River Killer or the Green River Strangler, is an American serial killer who was convicted of murdering forty-nine women between 1982 and 1998 in the northwestern United States. At ...

in the Green River area of Washington State.

Solo exhibitions

Khatibi has shown her work in various exhibitions throughout Europe and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Notable solo exhibitions include: *''Séduire ou crever de faim'', Island, Brussels, Belgium (2014) *''Ask me nicely'', Trampoline, Antwerp, Belgium (2015) *''The hollow in the ferns'', NICC Vitrine, Brussels, Belgium (2016) *''Le jardin décomposé'', Super Dakota, Brussels, Belgium (2016) *''No Church in the wild'', The Cabin LA, Los Angeles CA, USA (2017) *''With tendresse and longing'', Billboard Series #6: Art in Public Space, Artlead, Gent, Belgium (2017) *''Rivers in your mouth'', Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium (2017) *''Wild Mink'', Artlead Salon, Brussels, Belgium (2018) *The Murders of the Green River, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium (2019) *“''Cruelest of the Seas''” Kunsthal Ghent (2020) *''Lemon Drizzle'', Groeningemuseum Bruges (2021)

Group exhibitions

*''Quel amour!'', MAC, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille, France, 2018 *''NICC 20 Years Jubilee'', NICC, Antwerp, Belgium, 2018 *''Hecate'', Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2017 *''Summer in the City'', Christine Konig Gallery, Vienna, Austria, 2016 *''Biennial of Painting'', Museum of Deinze, Deinze, Belgium, 2016 *''Balls & Glory'', rodolphe janssen, Brussels, Belgium, 2016 *''Louise 186'', Brussels Art Days, Brussels, Belgium, 2015 *''Me, myself and I, trampoline'', Antwerp, Belgium, 2015 *''The Seventh Continent'' 16th Istanbul Biennial, 2019 *“''The Tears of Eros: Moesman, Surrealism and the Sexes''” Utrecht, 2020

References

External links

Artist's website

Rodolphe Janssen exhibition
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khatibi, Sanam 1979 births Living people Belgian contemporary artists Artists from Brussels Belgian women painters 21st-century Belgian women sculptors Iranian women painters 21st-century Iranian painters 21st-century Iranian sculptors Iranian emigrants to Belgium