Samaneh Reyhani – Kaboud

Cecilia Hillström Gallery is pleased to present our first solo exhibition with Samaneh Reyhani, Kaboud. Working with sculpture, Samaneh Reyhani skilfully explores the duality of the bodily and the emotional ­represented by the tangible and the immaterial in her work. Materials like wood and stone are transformed beyond their inherent materiality, resulting in shapes and forms imbued with a visual poetry.

Samaneh Reyhani's sculptures are at first sight seductive in their animated shapes and colours. At a closer look, imprints are visible on the surface like bodies bearing traces of scars and wounds. Reyhani's inspiration is rooted in Eastern philosophy and poetry. For the exhibition her starting point has been the poem Haft Peykar in the book Panj Ganj by Nezami-ye Ganjavi, one of the greatest romantic poets in Persian literature, and the significance of colour in this story. Kaboud - meaning pigeon blue in Persian - is a colour associated with melancholy and mourning, but also spirituality and longing, that permeates the works in this presentation.

Another important concept present in the works is djaan which roughly translates into soul, life, or essence. The term has lent its title to the largest work in the show: the circle, a symbol of unity in itself, coloured in kaboud. The theme is important in the work of Persian poet Rumi, who speaks about djaan as a constant separation from the whole and the longing for this unattainable yet elevated state.

Samaneh Reyhani, b 1990 in Tehran, Iran, is based in Malmö and holds an MFA from Malmö Art Academy and an BFA from the University of Art, Tehran, Iran. Reyhani has exhibited at Malmö Art Museum, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Uppsala Art Museum and Ystad Art Museum. She was awarded the scholarships of Edstrandska foundation and Anna-Lisa Thomson Till Minne foundation in 2017, Aase och Richard Björklunds foundation in 2018 and The Swedish Arts Grants Committee's one-year working grant 2019. Reyhani is represented in the collections of Malmö Art Museum, Uppsala Art Museum, Helsingborg Museum, Region Skåne and Uppsala Municipality. Public commissions include Uppsala City Hall, Sjöbo City Hall, Drömmarnas hus, Malmö, MKB, Lindängen, Malmö, Västra Berga skola, Helsingborg and Kilsbostäder, Kil.