Shaqayeq Ahmadian captures life through a playful, exhilarating lens. Guided by her own sense of perception, she paints with immediacy and truthfulness. This immersive effect puts viewers squarely in the artist’s world. Her different layers of experience are eccentric and emerge through her choices of colours and form. Ahmadian engages with past and present and offers a possible future.
In this new series of works, the artist’s daydreams are of a blue palace and a sparkling, translucent sea. We are immersed in a glow of shimmering pinks and the blues of angels and fairies, nudes, cakes, swans and cats etc. Running through the works though are dark dystopian elements encompassing demonic figures and dragons with another canvas depicting menacing crows pecking at a woman’s chest, gushing with blood red droplets. Part fairy or folk tale / part nightmare with all their macabre subliminal undertones, Ahmadian’s paintings set a background for her female heroines – some tearful, some defiant, often standing in darkness or trapped within the limits of their own lives, but always strong and mindful of the future. After all, they are masters of their own destiny.
Self-evidently an autobiographical exposé, the artist embraces life, ignoring her own fears and surpassing the limitations and difficulties of life in her own homeland. Her unrelenting drive to better herself and to pass on the joy of discovery to those around her is exemplary. It is as if she holds her own mantle of light, and grins at the world and its complexities, purposely sharing her exhilaration and optimism. Ahmadian refuses to adhere to the norms of society and continues to craft her own path. Her honest approach to life and her art remains pure and striking.
– Nazila Noebashari
Shaqayeq Ahmadian (b.1996 Mazandaran, Iran) received a BA in Painting from Sooreh University, Tehran, Iran. Her work has been featured at galleries including Aaran Gallery, Tehran, Iran; Katharina Maria Raab Gallery, Berlin, Germany; Bergen Kunsthal, Bergen, Norway; Artem Gallery, Los Angeles, USA; Linda Farrell Gallery, Paris, France and Tabacallera Gallery, Madrid, Spain. The artist lives and works in Tehran, Iran.
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