Sanam Khatibi, 2017.
Photo by Jasmine Van Hevel
Set in fantastical, utopian landscapes, Sanam Khatibi’s (b. 1979) atemporal and allegorical works showcase primal impulses and unrestrained animality, wherein humans and beasts have little emotional or physical distinction. Channeling magical naturalism through paintings, tapestries, and sculptures, Khatibi both exalts and cautions against the fine line between triumph and failure, peace and brutality, and ultimately, civilization and destruction. Khatibi lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. She has presented solo exhibitions at Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil; the Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Belgium; rodolphe janssen, Brussels, Belgium; Kunsthal Gent, Gent, Belgium; and P·P·O·W, New York, NY, among others. She has also been included in Paradise, the Kortrijk Triennial, in 2021 and The Seventh Continent, the 16th Istanbul Biennial, curated by Nicholas Bourriaud in 2019. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at Alexander Berggruen, New York, NY; Centraal Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands; the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece; S.M.A.K, Gent, Brussels; UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium; Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain Occitane, Sète, France; Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille, France; and Museum of Deinze, Deinze, Belgium, among others. Khatibi’s second solo exhibition with P·P·O·W, We Wait Until Dark, is on view from April 12 to May 11.
Sanam Khatibi
b. 1979, Tehran, Iran
Lives and works in Brussels, Belgium
Solo Exhibitions
2024
We Wait Until Dark, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2023
Je serais douce, Le Voyage à Nantes, Nantes, France
2022
In my dreams, I kill him every night, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil
2021
Lemon Drizzle, Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Belgium
2020
Cyanide, rodolphe janssen, Brussels, Belgium
Cruelest of the Seas, Kunsthal Gent, Gent, Belgium
2019
An hour before the Devil fell, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
De ta salive qui mord, BPS22, Charleroi, Belgium
The Murders of the green river, rodolphe janssen, Brussels, Belgium
2018
Wild Mink, Artlead Salon, Brussels, Belgium
2017
Rivers in your mouth, rodolphe janssen, Brussels, Belgium
With tenderness and longing, Billboard Series: Art in Public Space, Artlead, Gent, Belgium
No Church in the wild, The Cabin LA, Los Angeles, CA
2016
Le jardin décomposé, Super Dakota, Brussels, Belgium
The hollow in the ferns, NICC Vitrine, Brussels, Belgium
2015
Ask me nicely, trampoline, Antwerp, Belgium
2014
Séduire ou crever de faim, Island, Brussels, Belgium
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023
Linhas Tortas, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil
Paper Trails, Mendes Wood DM, Retranchement, The Netherlands
Finis Terrae, Geukens & De Vil, Antwerp, Belgium
2022
Abrasive Paradise, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
The Natural World: Part II, Alexander Berggruen, New York, NY
2021
Modern Love (or Love in the Age of Cold Intimacies, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
One Way or Another, S.M.A.K, Gent, Brussels
Beyond the Looking Glass, Curated by Zuzanna Ciolek, UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles, CA
Paradise, The Kortrijk Triennial, Kortrijk, Belgium
Mirrored Infinities, The Agprognostic Temple, Brussels, Belgium
Chants of a Gargoyle, Seghers & Pang; Waldburger Wouters, Brussels, Belgium
2020
The Shameful Kiss, Kunstverein Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Tears of Eros, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Zonder kustenaars geen kunst, M HKA, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
2019
Le Salon, M HKA, Antwerp, Belgium
Some Trees, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
The Seventh Continent, 16th Istanbul Biennial, Curated by Nicholas Bourriaud, Istanbul, Turkey
2018
Terres de Femmes, Praz-Delavallade, Paris, France
Nightfall, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels, Belgium
Op de grond, tussenin of aan de hemel, Curated by Els Wuyts, Ten Bogaerde, Coxyde, Belgium
100 Sculptures, Curated by Todd Von Ammon & Joseph Ian Henrikson, Anonymous Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico
Mademoiselle, CRAC Occitanie, Sète, France
SEED, Group Show, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY USA
Dead Eden, Lyles & King, New York, NY USA
What are you staring at?, curated by Domenico De Chirico, Eduardo Secci, Florence, Italy
Quel amour !?, MAC, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille, France
20 YEARS NICC - JUBILEE - A works, NICC, Antwerp, Belgium
Weeping, Dreaming, Fucking, Laughing, Wschód Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2017
Listening to The Form, Panthera, Brussels, Belgium
Hecate, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA
Dalonaz, Royal, Brussels, Belgium
2016
Summer in the City, Christine König Gallery, Vienna, Austria
Biennial of Painting, Museum of Deinze, Deinze, Belgium
Balls & Glory, rodolphe janssen, Brussels, Belgium
2015
Louise186, Brussels Art Days, Brussels, Belgium
Me, Myself and I, trampoline, Antwerp, Belgium
Palourdes cuites, Christopher Crescent, Brussels, Belgium
Every day I’m..., Harlan Levey, Brussels, Belgium
2014
The Penthouse Art Event, Harlan Levey Projects, Bloom Hotel, Brussels, Belgium
2013
Thalie Art Project, Curated by Emmanuel Lambion and Nathalie Guiot, Brussels, Belgium
2012
The Antagonist, Waterside Contemporary, London, UK
Public Collections
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Belfius Art Collection, Brussels, Belgium
Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, West Palm Beach, FL
BPS22, Charleroi, Belgium
Centraal Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Musée d'lxelles, Brussels, Belgium
Province du Hainaut, Belgium
SMAK - Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium
Bibliography
2022
Nugent, Gabriella. “Sanam Khatibi.” Great Women Artists, Phaidon Press Limited, London, 2022, p. 158.
2021
“Beyond the Looking Glass.” Edited by Zuzanna Ciolek. UTA Artist Space, 2021. Exhibition catalogue.
“Cyanide.” Text by Nikolaas Demoen. Posture Editions, January 2021.
2019
“The Murders of the Green River.” rodolphe janssen, January 2019. Exhibition catalogue.
2018
“My garden is wilder than yours.” Text by Simon Delobel. Posture Editions, November 2018.
2017
“Rivers in your mouth.” rodolphe janssen, September 2017. Exhibition catalogue.
Sanam Khatibi
Death by Summer, 2021
oil, pastel and pencil on panel (framed)
9 1/2 x 12 1/2 ins.
24 x 31.6 cm
Sanam Khatibi
I’ve watched you at garden parties, 2021
oil, pastel and pencil on panel
9 1/2 x 12 1/2 ins.
24 x 31.6 cm
Sanam Khatibi
Sonnets to Orpheus, 2021
oil, pastel and pencil on panel
9 1/2 x 12 1/2 ins.
24 x 31.6 cm
Sanam Khatibi
With eyes that seem to burn, 2019
oil on panel
6 1/2 x 8 3/8 ins.
16.4 x 21.2 cm
Sanam Khatibi
To the last syllable of recorded time, 2019
oil and pencil on canvas
78 3/4 x 98 3/8 ins.
200 x 250 cm
Sanam Khatibi
This is the beast with a thousand mouths, that must be fed twice a day, 2019
oil and pencil on canvas
70 7/8 x 90 1/2 ins.
180 x 230 cm
Art history is filled with nakedness. To be specific, it’s filled with naked women depicted by men.
A painting by the Belgian artist Sanam Khatibi titled “Tasting a Piece of Her Gum” (2023), which she made exclusively for T. Khatibi’s work deals “with animality and our primal instincts,” and she often paints anthropomorphic subjects who “live on their impulses in alluring, exotic landscapes,” she says, “ambiguous [in] their relationship to power, violence, sensuality and each other.”
The Dow dropped 800 points, the S&P 500 fell into bear market territory, Bitcoin hit an 18-month low, and inflation concerns continued to stoke fears about an oncoming recession, but you wouldn’t have known that financial chaos was raging at Tuesday’s VIP opening of Art Basel in Basel.
The marquee art fair was one of the last major New York events before Covid-19 hit the city; now it’s back in a sparkling new venue.
Groeningemuseum presents the solo exhibition ‘Lemon Drizzle’ by Belgian artist Sanam Khatibi, showcasing works that illustrate an exotic, sumptuously detailed world.
Like almost every other woman in the world, Zuzanna Ciolek grew up receiving the message that women needed to look a certain way, and act a certain way, in order to be worthy of love.
Anticipated exhibitions in sculpture, drawing, painting, and photography looking at feminism, art history, glamour and nature; an IRL art fair; a talk on making artists books; sound art in the park; a fundraiser for fire-devastated local artists; more than one 80s flashback; and an arts-inspired pop-up in historic architecture.
Inspired by western and non-western masters alike, visual artist Sanam Khatibi interrogates our personal and political power-structures through material and scenic juxtapositions in her paintings, embroidery, tapestries and ceramic sculptures. TLmag talks to the Belgian artist and reflects on the underlying personal attributes that influence her intuitive practice.
