MARIAM SHAMBAYATI
CASH ONLY
The work of Iranian-born artist Mariam Shambayati, vividly reflects her life trajectory across countries and cultures. Her artistic production has always been of an intimate nature, kept for the most part within the realm of private collections. To this date, her work can be divided into three
fields, each expressing a different level of the artist’s engagement with herself and her context:
PAINTINGS. A rare family of intimate portraits and social-scapes, resulting from a deep connection with her subject matter. The protagonists make up a new society linked by the artist.
DIARIES. A daily sequence of self-portrait drawings which chronicle the last 25 years of her life. They convey the passage of time and Shambayati's shifting states of mind.
POSTITOLOGY. A multilingual collection of over 1000 notes, captured as a means to rid herself of mental clutter. The sticky thoughts find their place around the studio walls until they are photographed, encapsulated and regrouped in syntactic clouds.
Mariam Shambayati’s intense and personal career escapes all convention. Each work is a reflection of her out-of-the-ordinary approach to life.