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maysha mohamedi
About the Artist
Maysha Mohamedi (b. 1980, Los Angeles, USA) is an American-Iranian painter whose work explores her experiences and observations of living and working in Los Angeles and American daily life through a symbolic, painterly conversation.
Prior to dedicating herself to art, Mohamedi studied neuroscience at the University of California. It was during time spent in Japan, working in a lab, that she started to paint and took the decision, and the risk, to become an artist. Her recent solo exhibitions have been held at prominent institutions, among which Massimo de Carlo, France (2022); Parrasch Hejinen, California (2021); the Halsey McKay Gallery, New York (2020); the Left Field Gallery, California (2019); Gallery 16, California (2019); and The Lodge, California (2018).
Mohamedi’s first artistic influences came from her mother, whose watercolours charged with symbolism inspired the artist’s own experiments with colour theory and the lyrical abstraction she favours as a vehicle for human emotions and poetic narratives.
Mohamedi applies paint onto the canvas directly, using her hands. Touch is a significant element of her practice, with gestural abstraction directing a spontaneous journey of creation. Her paintings are imbued with a sense of life, energy and emotion.
Maysha Mohamedi. Courtesy the artist and PACE Gallery
WORKS IN THE COLLECTION
Maysha Mohamedi, "Driving Home Full of Sex and Melancholy", 2022
Oil on canvas, diptych: each, 251.5 x 417.2 x 4.4 cm
Courtesy the artist and PACE Gallery
Driving Home Full of Sex and Melancholy (2022) is a prime example of Mohamedi’s ability to transfer deep subjective experiences into her own individual language of abstraction. The diptych suggests two acutely different states of being, which when united appear both fractured and whole.
The right-hand work is characterised by its a dominant register of earthy tones, while its pair features organic forms intimating celestial bodies. Vibrant paint splashes and gestural marks create ambiguous shapes, conjuring up an atmosphere that stays true to the work’s evocative title. Mohamedi favours large-scale paintings, such as this one, to enable the viewer to become immersed within the painting and experience the sensation of being enveloped in its rhythm and colours.
Maysha Mohamedi, "C Natural", 2023
Oil on canvas: 38.1 cm × 43.2 cm
Courtesy the artist and PACE Gallery
C Natural (2023) embodies the meticulous process behind Mohamedi’s work. Her paintings begin with two main qualities: a key colour palette as well as an idea or experience. We are presented with her signature subtractive and additive technique where the negative space is as important as the positive.
Primary colours dominate the canvas as blue and green fragmented forms converse with red and yellow calligraphic motives, and subtle greys add depth. Mohamedi employs a mechanical pencil early in her process to draw these clean lines together, which are later brought to life with bold colours.
The small scale of this piece invites an intimacy between the composition and the viewer, evoking a fleeting moment which dances across the canvas.