Mahboub Anvari

Artist Statement

Every place we live in becomes a container for our identity, routines, and the cultural identities we carry with us. My studio practice, profoundly shaped by relocation and adaptation, focuses on the relationship between people and the spaces they inhabit. In my work, I examine how the environment can convey identity, presence, and absence. After moving from Iran to the United States, I became interested in how spaces retain traces of our routines, cultural identities, emotional states, and characters. Spending most of my days in our tiny studio apartment, I realized every place holds its inhabitants’ identity and traces of their presence and absence.

To explore these questions in my work, I employ a range of visual elements. For instance, mirrors and reflective surfaces recur throughout my work to question self-perception. In my recent paintings, such as “Neither One, Nor Many” and “Distorted to You,” I touch on concepts of identity and self-perception by employing mirrors to multiply and distort the figure, thereby emphasizing the mediated and partial nature of perception and identity. In contrast, “Light vs. Shadow” captures the stillness of a fleeting moment, where light and shadows have become the primary form of presence.

The “Residential Complex” series was developed in response to the Women, Life, Freedom movement in Iran and as my thesis’s collection. It utilizes interior views and a standardized format to reveal the diversity of lived experiences in Iran. As the protests unfolded in the streets, daily life became divided. Some risked their lives protesting. Others pretended nothing had happened, while some opposed the movement altogether. I responded by painting the Residential Complex collection: a series of apartment interiors, installed together as a single structure. Each painting presents a distinct apartment interior. Installed together, these works form a microcosm that challenges simplified external perceptions of Iranian society through observed domestic details such as furniture arrangements, lighting, and traces of individual choices. Additionally, shaped by my MA thesis on title-image relationships, I use titles as a secondary layer of meaning to subtly guide interpretation while preserving openness.

My practice addresses displacement, identity, and cultural difference in contemporary figurative painting. I investigate how domestic interiors reflect experiences of transition and adaptation, drawing on Edward Hopper's use of dramatic light to transform ordinary spaces into scenes of psychological tension.

Looking ahead, I intend to expand this inquiry by studying human-environment relationships, further exploring how domestic space can articulate nuanced experiences of displacement, belonging, and coexistence in a culturally diverse society such as the United States.